Bethel Finance news:
The state of Israel raised $1.5 billion in bonds on Monday in an oversubscribed offering on the U.S. market, Israel's finance ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry had planned to raise only $1 billion, but with the offer six- times oversubscribed, it increased the offering to $1.5 billion. The bonds will mature in 10.5 years and pay an interest of 4.115%, about 2 percentage points more than 10-year U.S. bonds. The 4.115% rate is lower than Israel has ever managed to pay on dollar bonds, the ministry said.
Israel will use the money raised to help balance its budget, the finance ministry said.
In 2011, lower tax revenues caused the state's budget deficit to increase to 3.3% of gross domestic product, up from a target of 2.9% of GDP. Tax revenues are also expected to be lower in 2012, again causing the state to miss its deficit target. This is Israel's first bond issue in dollars since March, 2009.
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