BEIRUT: Lebanon hired Credit Suisse Group AG and Bank of Beirut SAL to help sell $700 million of Eurobonds to refinance debt maturing this month, the Lebanese lender said on its website.

The Lebanese government plans to sell $500 million of bonds maturing in eight years, with yields in the range of 5.15 percent to 5.25 percent, and $200 million maturing in 12 years with a yield range of 6.1 percent to 6.2 percent, the bank said.

Lebanese Finance Minister Raya Hassan said in an August interview that the country may sell Eurobonds or swap as much as $4.8 billion of debt maturing this year and next, as it looks to benefit from low global interest rates before central banks worldwide begin to tighten monetary policy.

Lebanon has about $893 million of Eurobonds maturing this month and in December, and has about $2.14 billion due next year. When interest payments are included, the total redemption would be $1.5 billion this year and $3.3 billion in next year.

The country has already sold $1.2 billion of 10-year Eurobonds this year with an interest rate of 6.375 percent, to refinance debt that matured in March.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s national unity coalition, formed a year ago, has to finance public debt that the government expects to rise to $55.3 billion next year, or about 129 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Lebanon’s debt-to-GDP ratio has declined from a high of 180 percent at the end of 2006. It accumulated the debt to rebuild the country after the 1975-90 Civil War and the summer 2006 war with the state of Israel.

“Issuing new Eurobonds or rolling over maturing ones, instead of paying off the maturing bonds and retiring part of the public debt reflects the continuing borrowing needs of the government as a result of delays in implementing structural reforms,” said Nassib Ghobril, head of research at Byblos Bank SAL in Beirut.