Latvia, due to start repaying a 7.5 billion euro ($10.6 billion) bailout next year, is set to return to global debt markets and will look for a dollar Eurobond yield below 7 percent.
Finance minister Andris Vilks also told Reuters a government forecast for GDP to grow 3.3 percent this year was conservative and he, like many analysts, expected 4 percent growth and close to 5 percent next year. Inflation was seen around 4 percent.
Latvia plans to issue a Eurobond worth about $500 million in May or June, Vilks said in the capital of Kazakhstan on Sunday. It last tapped the international debt market in 2008, before the global financial crisis sent its economy into the worst recession since independence 20 years ago.
"We will need to do it (Eurobonds) from time to time as we need to repay large amount next year, as well as after it. We have a good story but there are also various bad ones and we hope it would not negatively affect the yield dynamics."
Vilks said Latvia was looking at a lower yield than that on Russia's rouble Eurobond reopening last week, when its largest neighbour offered a 7 percent yield to add 50 billion roubles ($1.8 billion) to an outstanding issue.
"Of course, we are looking at the lower (yield). We are borrowing on local market with 6.5-6.6 percent yield for 10-year bond, it is a benchmark. I do not know about the 'return price' yet but it is clear that the yield should be lower in the future. The first issue is an indicator,' he said.
Lithuania, another neighbour, priced a 10-year $750 million Eurobond at a 6.375 percent yield in March. Latvia's economy, where services such as logistics, IT and trade accounted for around 75 percent of GDP last year.
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