An operation to prematurely liquidate a state loan from Switzerland dating from October 2000 was successfully completed on Tuesday, BTA reported. The loan was of 28.6 million leva (14.6 million euro) including the interest owed, the Finance Ministry announced.

This is the second such operation this year, the other being an outstanding sum repaid to the IMF in April. After these premature repayments, the national budget has saved 16 million leva (8.2 million euro), which helps keep the National Reserve above its legally-stipulated minimum level of 3.6 billion leva (1.84 billion euro), the Ministry said.