Skopje, 23 July 2021 (MIA) – The Ministry of Finance said that North Macedonia fully repaid on Friday the EUR 500 Eurobond issued in 2014, which proves the institution’s strong commitment to stabilizing debt and limiting it within the Maastricht criteria, i.e. under 60% of the GDP. “Today we proved budget liquidity, by repaying the EUR 500 million Eurobond issued in 2014, with interest rate of EUR 20 million per year. In contrast, the Eurobond issued in March 2021 has an annual interest rate of EUR 8 million. This information is crucial for painting a clear picture of the state of the budget and of how we manage all crisis-related programs,” Finance Minister Fatmir Besimi told Parliament's plenary session on Friday, during which MPs discussed the draft revised budget for 2021. The EUR 500 million Eurobond was issued in July 2014, had a maturity period of seven years and interest rate of 3.975%. The funds for repaying it were provided via the Eurobond issued in March 2021, with maturity period of seven years and record-low interest rate of 1.625%. The latest Eurobond’s interest rate is 2.35 percentage points lower than the one of the Eurobond issued in 2014. 130 investors showed interest in purchasing the 2021 Eurobond, worth EUR 700 million. Besides being used to repay the  third Eurobond, issued in 2014, it will also be used to mitigate the effects of the coronacrisis by funding health and economic measures. North Macedonia has thus far issued eight Eurobonds in the period 2005-2021. Four of these have been fully repaid. The rest are set to be repaid by 2028. The Finance Ministry stressed on Friday the budget’s liquidity, adding that there’s excellent realization of revenues and expenditures. Since the start of the year, revenues have increased by 15.6% compared to the same period in 2020. The revised budget for 2021 projects 4.7% increase in revenues compared to initial projections.