Demand for bonds in Armenia needs step-by-step development, Mr Jan van Bilsen, Regional Manager for the South Caucasus of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), told Armenian news – NEWS.am at the event to mark the merger of ProCredit Bank into another Armenian bank, Inecobank.

“We think it’s very important to develop the capital market in Armenia, that’s why we’ve issued bonds before. We will definitely look for a good time to issue next bond”, he told.  Its size will depend on investors’ appetite, he added.

Demand for the bonds is still limited, but that is a development that needs to go step by step. Preparation to the pension reform, which is fully coming online in 2017, can be an impulse for the market, he added.

To remind, in 2014, IFC issued the first AMD 2 billion dram (approximately US$ 5 mln) Sevan bond in Armenia (named after the lake Sevan, one of the symbols of Armenia). That was the first tranche of an 8 billion Armenian dram bond series, and the first local currency bond issued by a non-resident in Armenia.