On April 27, the first 5-year government securities were issued at the e-trading on the Uzbek Currency Exchange, the Ministry of Finance said.

It added that the average weighted yield of securities was 12.65%, creating a benchmark for a maturity of 5 years.

At the auction, dealers received demands for the purchase of government securities worth 100 billion soums, which is 1.7 times more than the offer.

The issuance of medium and long-term government securities will serve as a benchmark for raising funds through the issuance of low-risk instruments in the national currency, diversify financial instruments and attract new entrants (insurance companies, etc.) to the financial market.

It was noted that in order to diversify the public debt portfolio and reduce currency risks, the Ministry of Finance is increasing the volume of government securities issuance and taking systemic measures to develop domestic financial markets.

For information, the volume of government securities issued by the Ministry of Finance in 2018 stood at 597 billion soums, in 2019 - 1 trillion 550 billion soums, in 2020 - 5 trillion 24 million soums and in January-April 2021 - 1 trillion 173 billion soums.

Also, in order to reduce currency risks in the public debt portfolio, in November 2020 for the first time 2 trillion soums worth of sovereign international bonds were issued.