Bulgaria's centre-right government will push ahead with privatising state assets this year and plans to issue a Eurobond worth up to 1 billion euros in the second quarter, its finance minister said on Thursday. Simeon Djankov, in an interview with Reuters, said the government aimed to sell a stake of between 10 to 25 percent in state energy company BEH via a foreign stock exchange by the end of the year, which could raise "several hundred million euros".
The government will also push on with reforms of healthcare and the police to try and make them more efficient. Djankov said the government should beat its budget deficit target of 1.3 percent of GDP this year and said its economic growth estimate of 2.8 percent now looked achievable. The government's drive to improve efficiency since it took power in 2009 has helped boost public finances and Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest member, has one of the bloc's lowest debt-to-GDP ratios at 16 percent.
It has 816 million euros in a bond redemption due in January 2013 and will aim to tap both local and international markets to help it make payments, Djankov said. The Eurobond would be for a seven-year term and worth between 500 million and 1 billion euros, he said.
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