YEREVAN, July 15. / ARKA /Kazakhstan sold a record $4 billion of bonds on Tuesday to finance deficit budget, finance minister Bakhyt Sultanov said, vestifinance.ru reported.
Kazakhstan is the first among developing nations to take advantage of the calming effect of Greece’s deal with creditors and the deal on Iranian nuclear program, he said.
Kazakhstan sold $2.5 billion in 10-year bonds at 285 basis points over Treasuries and $1.5 billion in 30-year notes at 335 basis points over their U.S. equivalent.
Kazakhstan comes back to the international market after raising $2.5 billion in 10-year and 30-year bonds in October.
The yield on Kazakh dollar bonds due in 2024 traded at 4.88 percent, 78 basis points below this year’s high on Jan. 6. The yield on notes due in 2044 fell one basis point to 6.19 percent from this year’s high on March 18. The yield on both notes rose on Tuesday.
Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kazkommerts Securities and Halyk Finance arranged the Kazakh bond sale.
Like Russian economy, the economy of Kazakhstan relies largely on the price of oil and other export commodities. In May 2015, the National Bank of Kazakhstan once again rejected the possibility of devaluation of the national currency, tenge, predicted by market participants after the presidential election, promising instead accelerated growth compared with the expectations of the government.
“We are not losing the pace of economic growth. This year we expect o at least a 3% growth,’ the head of the central bank Kairat Kelimbetov told Reuters.
‘There will not be devaluation,’ he said. Earlier he had promised a stable tenge at $50 per barrel of oil.
The government expects that in 2015 Kazakhstan’s economy will slow down to 1.5% from 4.3% a year earlier. At the same time, according to the IMF, this year Kazakhstan’s GDP growth may accelerate to 2%, and to 3.1% in 2016.-0-
