Foreign investors are buying Russian treasury bonds again after having ditched them in the second quarter, said Konstantin Vyshkovsky, head of the state debt department at the finance ministry, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
Foreign investors have reduced their holdings of Russian OFZ rouble bonds since the United States imposed its latest sanctions against Moscow in April. Following the sanctions, the finance ministry had to cancel some weekly OFZ auctions where it raises funds to cover the budget deficit. But in recent weeks the demand at its regular auctions has exceeded the amount of bonds on offer.
"We see that interest (in buying OFZ bonds) from subsidiaries of foreign banks has increased substantially," Vyshkovsky said in an interview with Interfax. On Wednesday, the finance ministry sold all 40 billion roubles ($630 million) of OFZ bonds on offer to demand of more than 90 billion roubles. According to Vyshkovsky, the last auction saw "serious presence of non-residents."