Finance Ministry Exchanges OFZ Loan Bonds Worth $197Bn For GKO-t-bills

The Russian Finance Ministry floated new GKO-t-bills at an auction today by exchanging OFZ federal loan bonds issue No. 25030. This information was reported by the Central Bank that acts as an agent of the Finance Ministry for making loans on the domestic market. The volume of floated bills reached 5.985bn rubles ($197m). Earnings of the Finance Ministry amounted to 5.467bn rubles ($183m). The average-weighted yield for GKOs was set at 14.96 per cent a year. The Finance Ministry decided to conduct this exchange of OFZ bonds to GKOs in order to prevent the destabilization of the situation on the financial market on December 15, 2001, when payments on OFZ bonds are to be made.