S. Korea mulling additional dollar bond sale: official

SEOUL, April 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will consider issuing additional
dollar-denominated state debt in overseas markets this year based on "market
conditions," a high-ranking financial policymaker said Thursday.
"We will decide on an additional issuance after taking into consideration market
conditions at home and abroad," said Kim Ik-joo, director general of the
international finance bureau of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. "Its scale
and timetable have yet to be determined."
The government earlier said that it "successfully" sold US$3 billion of
dollar-denominated currency stabilization bonds. It is allowed to sell up to $6
billion of such bonds this year.
The debt issuance at a relatively favorable interest spread reflected confidence
in overseas investors about South Korea and that it will ease jitters over a
liquidity crunch and instability in financial markets, Kim added.
The sale comes after it failed to raise $1 billion in overseas markets in
September last year when the global financial market tumbled in the wake of the
collapse of Lehman Brothers in the U.S.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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