Gov’t to Raise $200m in Bonds

The government plans to sell 58.4 trillion rials ($201 million) in bonds at the weekly auction next week.
Maturity dates are October 2022 and October 2023, according to a notice on the Central Bank of Iran website.
Selling debt has become government policy in recent years to raise funds for deficit spending. Last week, the Economy Ministry announced plans to issue 400 trillion rials ($1.3 billion) in new bonds by March.
It expects to sell 100 trillion rials ($35m) on a monthly basis.
The government sold debt worth 510 trillion rials ($1.7b) in  eight months since the beginning of current fiscal year in March.
In the last auction this week, it sold 7.58 trillion rials ($26m). Buyers were retail and institutional investors in the stock market. Bond yield is 21.7% for debt maturing in Oct. 2023 and 21.5% for Oct. 2022.
On behalf of the Economy Ministry, the CBI is in charge of selling bonds to banks and credit institutions in the interbank market plus retail and institutional buyers in the equity exchange market.
Government moves to sell debt for plugging deficit holes has attracted much public and media attention, particularly after stock market investors complained that the practice has drained liquidity from the battered bourse.
Earlier in the week, Masoud Mirkazemi head of Plan and Budget Organization said the government’s income from selling debt has been used mainly to reimburse bonds sold in the past.
In a note on his Twitter account, Mirkazemi said the Raisi administration has to find 5,350 trillion rials ($18.5 billion) to pay for the principal plus interest on bonds that mature up until 2026.