Monitor: Kamenicky: Gov't Contemplates Introduction of Retail State Bonds

(RTVS, 'O 5 minut 12', April 28) The Finance Ministry is entertaining an option to issue state bonds that could be procured directly by common people and this could be a win-win scenario, seeing as the people could take advantage of higher interest rates than those seen in banking accounts while selling the bonds this way would be more beneficial for the state in comparison to offering the bonds on financial markets, Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) said on RTVS's discussion programme 'O 5 minut 12' (Five Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday. According to Kamenicky, this could be one of the solutions to active privately-owned resources in support of the economy, as previously mentioned several times by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) already. "It'd be up to the people to decide whether they want an interest significantly higher than what they get with regular accounts," claimed Kamenicky, adding that the buying of such state bonds would be optional. He pointed out that the model has been successfully tried by several other countries. The idea was welcomed also by Kamenicky's opposite number, House Financial Committee vice-chair Marian Viskupic (SaS) too, who finds the use of the so-called retail state bonds quite a sensible policy. "It just needs to be carried out sensibly and it'll be okay," he said. In Kamenicky's view, a discussion on activating resources saved up in the second pension pillar is also legitimate, seeing as this money is often invested abroad at the moment. "It's a legitimate question and it's nothing new to discuss that pension administrators would invest also in the state bonds and similar tools. The more they do that, the less the state would need to borrow on international markets," explained Kamenicky. This didn't sit well with Viskupic, though, who takes objection to any attacks on the second pillar. Even though no one wishes to confirm this for the time being, in Viskupic's opinion the Government is doing everything it can to reopen the second pillar and gain access to the people's private pension savings. mf