Slovakia borrows at lowest-ever costs

Slovakia borrows at the lowest-ever costs and is trusted by financial markets, Prime Minister Robert Fico and Finance Minister Peter Kažimír said on Tuesday. "We cut the sovereign debt by 1 percent in 2014, which makes us the best in Europe in this regard. We're down to a debt of 54 percent of GDP ... Our debt is the lowest ever. This is thanks to our restoring order in public finances and the trust of the markets, we're able to go to the markets and gain funding to fund our debt in the future at rock-bottom rates", said the premier. Fico went on to praise the auction of Slovakia's 12-year bond last Tuesday and how it had a record-low yield of 1.45 percent and drew demand of €5.5 billion. "The Finance Ministry estimates that we cut the public debt in 2014 on the year to 53.7 percent (of GDP), or under 54 percent… In absolute figures, the debt was just over €40 billion. The cost incurred in servicing the debt was €1.4 billion, as we saved €117 million compared to the plan - this was thanks to professional management of the debt and interest from investors, which is attributable to the state of our public finances", he added. "We saved 8 percent of expenses in 2014 that we'd planned to spend on servicing the debt", said Kažimír.