The Minister of Finances Fernando Alvarez Bogaert said that the government plans to issue bonds (to be known as Soberanos) to help pay for the high cost of the petroleum bill. The Minister said that his department is in contact with several brokerage firms and international banks prior to carrying out a tender to choose the firm that will launch the bonds, as reported in Hoy newspaper. Alvarez Bogaert says that the timing is right for the launching of government bonds because the US Federal Reserve has been dropping interest rates. El Siglo newspaper says that the government is also considering taking out an international bank loan to improve the international reserves. He said that the economic team of the government has been working on this strategy. El Siglo recently reported that the government had made payments of RD$1,295 million to service the international debt in its first six months in office. This is 33.9% more than last year.
