MNI: Rising Yields Won't Affect Slovak Debt Plan - Official

Recent sharp upticks in sovereign bond yields are unlikely to affect Slovakia's near-term issuance plans, the Head of the Debt Management Department at Slovakia's Debt and Liquidity Management Agency ARDAL told MNI.

Bond yields have risen around the world, with investors pointing to the determination of central banks including the Federal Reserve to keep rates at high levels for longer. Slovak 10-year bond yields have jumped about 45 basis points since the end of August to about 4.2%. But with most issuance already complete, Bratislava is likely to stick to its near-term borrowing plans, senior treasury official Peter Soltys said.

"Although we observe the whole market moving up, we don’t expect any short term deviations from our issuance plans. We are long-term oriented and we don’t try to time the market," he said in response to written questions. "Our gross issuance plan for 2023 is done, almost on 93%. We have only two bond auctions remaining for final issuance fine-tuning."