Finance Ministry sells benchmark bonds worth GEL80mln
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, September 23
Five-year securities with a face value of GEL80,000,000 were sold at the Ministry of Finance Treasury Bill Auction.
According to the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), five commercial banks participated in the auction. The demand amounted to GEL151,500,000. The minimum interest rate was set at 8,28%, the maximum at 8.45%, and the weighted average interest rate was set at 8.3%.
The coupon interest rate was 9.125%. The coupon will be paid twice a year, every 6months.
The NBG will sell $ 40 million at a Foreign exchange auction today, September 23rd. The National Bank spread information about it. This will be the 14th foreign exchange intervention by the NBG this year.
The National Bank sold the same amount - $ 40 million - on September 16th. The average weighted exchange rate was 3.1546.
The NBG sold a total of $ 409,650,000 in foreign exchange reserves in 2020, including the September 16th auction.
As a result of trading on September 22nd, the national currency of Georgia depreciated by 2.42 tetri against the US dollar. The Lari also depreciated against the Euro- the exchange rate changed to 2.17 tetri.
According to the data published by the NBG, by September 23rd, one US $ will cost GEL3.2537, one Euro - GEL3.8267, and the British pound sterling - GEL4.1787.
Today, at the official exchange rate, one US dollar was worth GEL3.2295, Euro - GEL3.8050, pound - GEL4.150. The exchange rate obtained as a result of yesterday’s trading will start on September 23rd.
According to Giorgi Khishtovani, director of the PMC Research Center, the reason for the depreciation of the Lari, along with fundamental factors, is the deteriorating expectations of the population.
As he told bm.ge, all four main sources of foreign currency inflows are at a critical minimum, and, if there is an increase in remittances, this is because due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the currency can not enter the country directly.
Regarding the policy of the NBG- to help stabilize the Lari by selling foreign exchange reserves, Khishtovani says that if the NBG forecast is the further devaluation of the national currency, then postponing the process for several weeks at the expense of interventions is wrong.
"In that case, it might be better to move the lari to a new equilibrium than to postpone the process for a few weeks, and then the exchange rate will fall immediately, and our foreign exchange reserves will decrease,” he explained.
