(Adds comments from interview, context)
By Jorgelina do Rosario and Rodrigo Campos
WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) – Colombia is looking to issue a green bond before the end of 2023, likely in dollars, and could tap traditional credit markets again this year if rates fall, finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo said on Friday.
Ocampo said the amounts are not set yet but that the green bond would be smaller than a $2.2 billion benchmark issuance from the South American government earlier this year.
“We don’t need more financing for 2023, all 2023 amortizations are covered, and even part of next year’s. We don’t need it, but it could be convenient,” he said in Washington, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.
Ocampo said “when interest rates come down” it will be a good time to market new bonds, likely in the second half of this year, aiming for yields to be below the 7.5% in the most recent issuance.
“We are thinking green and social bonds,” he said, “we’re working with the (Inter-American Development Bank) and the World Bank.”
PENSION REFORM
Ocampo said views that the current pension reform proposal could lower the government’s ability to finance itself are “completely wrong,” as any demand lost for local bonds from private pension funds will be absorbed by the new government pension fund.
With the current proposal, the government’s pension fund will absorb contributions from up to three times the minimum wage, with workers earning more than that able to direct the rest to existing private funds.
Ocampo, rumored to be leaving the government of left-leaning President Gustavo Petro, said when asked about the duration of his time in office: “I have my public service leave from Columbia University until June of next year.” (Reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario in Washington and Rodrigo Campos in New York; additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra in Bogota; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
