The Ministry of Finance published the Debt and Debt Markets Report QII 2008 today.

The Ministry of Finance published the Debt and Debt Markets Report QII 2008 today.
 
By the end of June 2008, gross public debt reached LL 67,060 billion (US$ 44.5 billion), a 5.83 percent increase over the end-December 2007 level, with net public debt at LL 60,909 billion (US$ 40.4 billion), registering an increase of LL 2,072  billion over the end-December 2007 level. By currency composition, 52 percent of gross public debt is in domestic currency, with the remaining in foreign currency as follows: 40.8 percent in USD, 5.0 percent in Euros, and 2.1 percent in other foreign currencies by end-June 2008.
 
Starting June 12th, high demand on Treasury bills and notes has been noted with primary market rates on a gradually decreasing trend and high demand from commercial banks who subscribed to 81 percent of Treasury bills and notes in QII 2008. On the foreign currency debt front in QII 2008,  the Lebanese Republic issued a US$ 881.612 million 9 percent coupon Eurobond due 2014 at a yield of 9.000 percent in May 2008. The issue was a result of the successful completion of a voluntary debt exchange offer for and the issuance of new notes worth US$ 150 million. Foreign currency loans at LL 4,962 billion, 41 percent of which are in Euros and 30 percent of which are in USD, are mainly allocated to budgetary support (47 percent), and project financing (53 percent) with the main recipient sectors being the water sector (17 percent), transportation sector (10 percent), and power sector (9 percent).
 
The Debt and Debt Markets Report was first published for QII 2007 and is being published every quarter. It covers recent developments relating to public debt, the government's debt structure, domestic and foreign debt primary markets, secondary markets trading, a list of Eurobonds outstanding, a full range of risk indicators, configuration of creditors, and other pertinent data.