Bulgaria not likely to tap markets next year-finmin

First Investment Bank AD

17/08/2016 17:11

SOFIA, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Bulgaria will most likely not 
raise new debt next year after health checks on the country's 
banks showed they would not need state support, Finance Minister 
Vladislav Goranov said on Wednesday. 
    "It is very likely to set a zero limit for new debt in the 
budget law for 2017. Of course it is too early to say, but as I 
look at the numbers for the time being, the limit will be zero," 
Goranov told reporters. 
    Bulgaria tapped global markets in March, raising 2.0 billion 
euros ($2.25 billion) in a bond sale, putting the money aside to 
prop up banks if needed and Goranov said part of the proceeds 
would now be used to repay 5-year, 950-million-euros Eurobonds 
that mature next July.  
    The Balkan country's third largest bank First Investment 
Bank  5F4.BB  and smaller lender Investbank need to raise 
additional capital, the asset quality review and stress tests 
showed, but the central bank said that will be achieved by 
market measures.  L8N1AU09G    
    The finance minister has already said he expects Bulgaria's 
fiscal shortfall to be below the target of 2 percent of gross 
domestic product this year due to above-forecast tax revenues in 
the first half of the year. 
    The government is yet to draft the 2017 budget, but its 
mid-term fiscal forecast sets the fiscal deficit target at 1.4 
percent of GDP. 
($1 = 0.8882 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; Editing by Toby Chopra) 
 ((tsvetelia.tsolova@thomsonreuters.com; +359-2-93-99-731;)) 
 
Keywords: BULGARIA DEBT/