Iraq now expects to be ready to tap the international debt market for a $2bn Eurobond in the last quarter of 2016, Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari says. By then he hopes that the first tranches of $20bn-plus of hoped for multilateral assistance will begin to flow in, helping to bring down the cost of borrowing.
An earlier attempt by Iraq last October to raise some $6bn from the international debt market was cancelled because Iraq found the pricing was too high. This followed a ‘junk’ rating for the prospective bonds by ratings agencies Moody’s, Fitch and S&P (MEES, 25 September 2015). (CONTINUED - 709 WORDS)
