The Finance Ministry issued a new bond auction on Tuesday, amounting to 2,701 billion denars (43,93 million EUR).
“We have issued 28 miliion EUR in bonds maturing at 12 months, with an interest rate of 1,85 percent, 1,3 million EUR in bonds maturing in five years with an interest rate of 2,5 percent and 14,4 million EUR in bonds maturing in 15 years, which carry an interest rate of 3,8 percent”, the Finance Ministry informed. The Ministry added that on Wednesday it will cover maturing debt of 32,55 million EUR. The difference between the new debt and this repayment will be used for activities provided in the budget.
VMRO-DPMNE strongly criticized the latest bond auction, saying that in only two and a half months the SDSM led Finance Ministry issued bonds worth 145 million EUR.
“With the budget rebalancing act, SDS plans for 150 million EUR in additional debt issues in the domestic and the international market. Meanwhile, they began melting away our foreign currency reserves. SDS needs to end this spending spree immediately. They can’t keep putting the country further in debt for baseless spending items, without consulting the citizens who will have to repay this debt in the future”, said Hristijan Delev from VMRO-DPMNE on Monday, ahead of the auction. VMRO-DPMNE refers to SDSM as SDS, omitting the letter M which stands for Macedonia.
SDSM responded to an earlier press release saying that Their empty accusations about alleged spending of foreign currency reserves shows that VMRO-DPMNE lacks basic understanding about the management of public finances. We use a single account to pay back the credit lines and the maturing debt. Through our responsible management, the public debt has been reduced for the first time since 2008″.
