Information from the Ministry of Finance and the Czech National Bank

On 29 November 2002 a joint meeting was held between representatives from the Ministry of Finance and the Czech National Bank and the direct participants in government bond auctions on the issuance calendar for 2003. The Ministry of Finance briefed the participants on its medium-term issuing strategy.

The objective of the Ministry of Finance's debt service is to change the structure of the government bond portfolio so that one-third of the market debt is financed by T-bills and two-thirds by medium and long-term bonds. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance will attempt to increase the portfolio duration to 3-4 years. The strategic targets correspond to the debt service targets of developed OECD countries.

The Ministry of Finance stated that pursuant to Article 1 of the Bill on the State Budget of the Czech Republic for 2003, the state budget deficit will be financed up to an amount of

CZK 106,480,033,000 through the issuance of government bonds. The volume of medium and long-term government bonds in circulation will thus rise by CZK 100 billion and the volume of T-bills by CZK 6.48 billion in 2003.

Alice Frisaufova
CNB spokesperson