YEREVAN, September 20, /ARKA/. The Republic of Armenia's has set a final yield of 6% on its first issue of a benchmark-sized US dollar bond, the ministry of finance said. The maturity period is seven years.

The sovereign, rated Ba2 by Moody's and BB- by Fitch, released initial price thoughts of 6.375% area on the issue earlier on Thursday. The bonds were expected to price later on Thursday via Deutsche Bank, HSBC and JP Morgan.

Earlier the Armenia’s parliament approved in the final reading a bill, exempting non-residents’ income earned from investing in the Armenian government foreign-currency denominated bonds from income tax. According to a deputy finance minister Suren Karayan , it is aimed to encourage investments of non-residents in Armenian bonds. -0-