NICOSIA: Cyprus plans two international debt issues this year, its finance minister said yesterday, seeking a firmer footing in markets after a near meltdown in 2013.
The Mediterranean island nation is preparing for two issues under its European Medium Term Note programme, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said. Details have not yet been decided.
The European Union member state, which required a €10bn lifeline to stave off bankruptcy in March 2013, successfully tapped international markets last June with a €750m issue taken under the same programme. It was the swiftest comeback of a bailed-out nation to international markets in the history of the euro debt crisis.
“Cyprus is implementing an ambitious programme of economic reform and consolidation which is already delivering early and tangible results. On such sound foundations we are aiming to re-establish sustainable market access,” Georgiades said.
Cyprus required a bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund after fiscal slippage that had kept it out of international markets for months.
Georgiades said the upcoming debt issues would not substitute but complement existing financing from lenders.Reuters
