VN delays $3b int’l bond plan

July 23, 2016 | 09:38

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Việt Nam has postponed a US$3-billion international bond issuance plan due to unfavourable conditions in the global finance and monetary market, the finance ministry said.

The Government plans to closely watch the global market to decide on a suitable time to issue the bonds in line with national interests.

The National Assembly in November last year had approved the international bond issuance plan, to be launched in 2016, to restructure domestic debts that arise during the 2015-16 period. The bonds were expected to have terms of 10 to 30 years, with interest rates to be set depending on international capital market conditions at the time of issuance.

However, according to the finance ministry, the global finance and monetary market has continued to remain in flux since the end of last year, with the period witnessing several unfavourable conditions such as United States’ Treasury bond rise, China’s yuan devaluation and the Brexit vote.

The international bond issuance plan, therefore, had been postponed, the ministry said.

However, it said the Government would closely watch the global market to be able to issue the bonds at a suitable time, ensuring national interests.

Việt Nam has so far issued international bonds three times, the first of which was in 2005, worth US$750 million; the second in 2010, valued at $1 billion; and the third in 2014, worth $1 billion.

As for the domestic bond market, the Government issued VNĐ187.7 trillion in bonds in the first half of the year, nearly 86 per cent of which were bonds with a tenor of five years or more.

The average tenor of the bonds during the period reached 6.8 years with an average interest rate of some 6.4 per cent per year.

The State Treasury will issue another VNĐ40 trillion in Government bonds until the end of the year, chiefly those with tenors of more than five years.

VNS

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