Fiji Government looks to refinance US $250m Bond

The Fijian Government will decide this week how it will refinance a global bond worth US$250 million which will mature next year.

Finance Permanent Secretary Filimone Waqabaca says talks have been held with various international financial institutions to work out the best solution.

“The payment next year will be in full, it will probably be a rollover depending on the arrangement that we will agree on now, so it will be a, we will have to roll over or do another float in order to repay that, but part of it will probably be taken from our funds that we have been keeping aside to help in the funding aspect of it as well.”

Waqabaca also reveals that the bond which was taken out in 2011 for the development of infrastructure is not something the government coffers has on hand to repay itself.

He says government is talking with various parties including multilateral institutions such as Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.