Offers for the bonds came to over 12 billion dollars, “showing investor confidence in the Hungarian economy remains strong”, Mihály Varga said on Facebook.

He noted Hungary’s year-end state debt ratio fell to 73.5% of GDP at the end of last year from 76.8% at end-2021, while the budget deficit reached 4.9% of GDP, instead of 5.9% expected earlier.

Varga also said the ratio of forex debt within Hungary’s state debt would remain under the 30% threshold.

“We count on a further reduction in the public debt and a lower deficit this year, too,” the minister said.

The State Debt Management Centre (ÁKK) said it had issued 1.5 billion dollars of five-year bonds, 1.5 billion dollars of ten-year bonds and 1.25 billion dollars of 30-year bonds on Wednesday.

The yield on the 5-year bond is 6.27%, 240bps over the benchmark US Treasury yield, while that on the 10-year bond is 6.51%, 280 bps above.

The 30-year bond is 7.10%, 325bps above. Part of the proceeds will be used to buy back USD bonds maturing in 2023 and 2024, and the rest will go toward “general financing purposes”.