9th round of govt. bond auctions brings CBI over $1b

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on Tuesday held the ninth round of its weekly government bond auctions through which it sold 44 trillion rials (about $1.04 billion) of bonds to banks and financial institutions, IRNA reported.

According to the CBI office of public relations, in this round 10 banks and institutions placed a total of 73.7 trillion rials (about $1.75 billion) of purchase orders, from which 44 trillion rials were finalized.

The 10th round of the auction of government bonds for selling to banks, non-bank credit institutions, investment funds, insurance companies, and financing companies will be held on Tuesday, August 4, according to the CBI Brokerage.

CBI held its first auction of government bonds on Tuesday, June 2, and the auction has been held every week ever since.

It asked banks to place purchase orders for the bonds on the interbank trading platform.

According to the bank, the plan to open a primary interbank market for bond auctions is aimed at helping the government raise funds for budgetary needs as it struggles with high and rising deficits.

Earlier the CBI had announced that it plans to hold auctions at the start of each trading week and regularly.

As reported, purchase orders will be processed by the CBI’s brokerage and then will be sent to the Finance and Economic Affairs Ministry for approval. The brokerage firm should settle the payment in one working day.

Raising funds through the debt market has become a major strategy for the government which is wrestling with financial issues resulted from the coronavirus, collapsing oil prices, U.S. sanctions, and loss of oil export revenue.

The government expects to make 1.09 quadrillion rials ($25.9 billion) from bonds as per provisions of the current fiscal budget.

source: TehranTimes