BEIRUT: Lebanon's central bank said on Tuesday it sold $3.022 billion of Eurobonds, more than three times the $1 billion it planned to place with demand from local investors high.
The central bank, which this month said it intended to sell $2 billion of Eurobonds over the coming year, said it planned no further sales of Eurobonds from its portfolio in 2018.
Tuesday's sale was of paper maturing between 2028 and 2034 and yielding from 7 to 8.25 percent. Settlement is on Wednesday, it said.
The Lebanese government completed a $5.5 billion debt swap with the central bank on May 18, issuing it with Eurobonds in exchange for Lebanese pound T-Bills.
The ministry said the swap secured its foreign currency financing needs until the end of 2018 and also strengthened the central bank's dollar reserves. A similar $1.7 billion swap was also carried out in November 2017.
After the two swaps and the sale, the central bank said it held around $4.7 billion in Eurobonds, representing just over 8 percent of its dollar assets.
Lebanon is the world's third most indebted nation after Japan and Greece, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 150 percent.
The International Monetary Fund has said Lebanon's debt trajectory is unsustainable and the government needs to take immediate action to boost growth and reduce its budget deficit.
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