Russia Won't Tap Into Foreign Debt Markets: Finance Minister Anton Siluanov

Russia’s finance minister said Tuesday that the country won’t be borrowing from foreign sovereign debt markets this year, according to Bloomberg.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Russia won’t be selling eurobonds, or bonds that are tied to another country’s currency, such as the dollar. The development comes as Siluanov’s deputy, Sergey Storchak, said Russia would also “seriously” cut back on selling bonds in local currency, and Standard & Poor’s downgrading Russian debt to near-junk levels on April 25. Russia hasn’t sold eurobonds since last year in an issue that raised $7 billion.

The ruble has been declining against the dollar, down 5.7 percent on the year, which Bloomberg says is the second worst performance of currencies it tracks out of 24 emerging markets.