Colombia central bank completes sale of $1 billion

Colombia's central bank on Friday sold $250 million in international reserves to the government, bringing to $1 billion the total bought so far by the Finance Ministry to go toward prepaying foreign debt. Colombia on Friday said it will prepay a $1.25 billion Inter-American Development Bank loan on April 4. The government has yet to buy $250 million in reserves to complete financing of the prepayment, according to a statement posted on the bank's Web page.
The prepayment will reduce the Andean country's foreign debt amortisations by $313 million in 2006, by $625 million in 2007 and another $313 million in 2008, a statement issued by the Finance Ministry said.
The government is issuing TES Treasury paper to raise the money to buy international reserves from the country's central bank to make the prepayment.