Economics
Russia Lands a Bond Bonanza as Investors Look Beyond Sanctions
- Finance Ministry places record 57.6 billion rubles of bonds
- Foreigner bond holdings climbed for the first time since March
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Russia scored its biggest local-debt auction on record and foreigners boosted their holdings of the debt for the first time in almost a year, even as the threat of U.S. sanctions lingered.
The nation’s Finance Ministry sold a total of 57.6 billion rubles ($875 million) in two offerings on Wednesday. Both the 2024 and the 2029 notes were oversubscribed with the ministry offering a premium of four basis points in both tenders. Also on Wednesday, the central bank published data on bond holdings for January, which showed foreigners increased their share to 25 percent, the first gain since March.