(Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast cut its forecast for debt sales in West Africa's regional market this year, raising the likelihood of a larger Eurobond issuance to fund its budget.
The world's top cocoa producer plans to reduce its local-currency issuance in the eight-member West African Economic and Monetary Union by almost a third from last year, according to Agence UMOA-Titres, the bloc's debt agency. That will leave the nation with a balance of 838 billion CFA francs ($1.5 billion) in debt that will be sold elsewhere.
The country was planning to sell at least $1 billion in Eurobonds this year, depending on the amount of debt in can sell on the regional market, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.
Click here to read more about Ivory Coast's debt-issuance plans for 2019
Ivory Coast's target for regional sales is 609 billion francs, according to UMOA-Titres. The overall budgetary debt requirement amounts to 1.45 trillion francs.
To contact the reporter on this story: Baudelaire Mieu in Abidjan at bmieu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Hilton Shone
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