2011.08.1610:41:00UTC+00Salgado Says Spain To Reduce Debt Issuance This Year: Report

Spain is aiming to reduce its debt issuance by as much as EUR 12 billion towards the final part of this year, Finance Minister Elena Salgado said Tuesday.

The government plans to achieve the cut in issuance before the November election, Bloomberg News cited the minister as saying in an e-mailed response to questions.

Salgado also said the government plans to go ahead with the listing of lottery operator Sociedad Estatal Loterias y Apuestas del Estado in the last week of October. Further, the management contracts for two airports in Madrid and Barcelona will be auctioned, she added.

The Spanish government's borrowing costs decreased as the European Central Bank's recent bond buying reduced concern over the contagion of crisis to core economies, reports said Tuesday. The average yield on the 12-month bills dropped slightly to about 3.335 percent from 3.7 percent in the previous auction.

Official figures showed today that the Spanish economy grew just 0.2 percent sequentially in the second quarter, after expanding 0.3 percent in the previous three months. External demand underpinned the economic growth, which partially offset the fall in domestic demand.