France's medium- to long-term debt issuance programme for 2009 is 92.5 per cent complete, the debt management agency said today, adding that buybacks should allow it to reduce the financing needs for 2010.
A spokesman for Agence France Tresor said the 2009 programme so far net of buybacks stood at €152.64 billion out of a total of €165 billion.
"There are three auction days left between now and the end of the year which puts us in an extremely comfortable situation for finishing the year," the spokesman said in comments sent to Reuters.
"In fact, we are continuing buybacks of issues maturing in 2010 which will allow us to significantly reduce the size of the financing programme announced at €175 billion in the budget proposal published at the end of September."
Earlier today, France sold €7.9 billion of BTANs and OATs at auction and €1.7 billion of inflation-linked OATs.
"On the linkers, as in the previous auction, the top end of the range (on offer) was issued due to demand," the spokesman said.
"The rates were far higher than the market level, illustrating strong demand by investors positioning themselves for the economic recovery."
France has sold €10.9 billion of index-linked bonds since the beginning of the year, nearly 7.2 per cent of total issuance.
Reuters