Russia to borrow on foreign markets with Eurobond issues next year

Russia plans to place Eurobonds on foreign markets in early 2012 in a bid to finance its budget deficit, a Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday. “We are completing preparations for the issue of Eurobonds and want to offer them at the start of [next] year, which may be a more favorable period on financial markets,” Konstantin Vyshkovsky, director of the ministry’s debt department, said. The Finance Ministry official declined to specify the Eurobond issue, saying the 2012 federal budget projected $7 billion in external borrowings. The currency of the Eurobond issue has not yet been determined. The preferred maturity period for the Finance Ministry is over ten years, he said, adding that the term of borrowing would depend on the market. "If there is an opportunity to float papers with the longest maturity (over ten years), we’ll do it,” he said. In 2010, Russia placed Eurobonds worth $5.5 billion for the first time after a 12-year gap. The Eurobond issue was heavily oversubscribed. In 2011, Russia did not borrow on external markets as the state's coffers were full from sales of oil, the country's key export. Under Russia’s 2012-2014 budget, the budget deficit is set at 1.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, 1.6 percent of GDP in 2013 and 0.7 percent of GDP in 2014. The document is based on the price of Urals oil blend of $100 per barrel in 2012, $97 in 2013 and $101 in 2014.