Venezuela bonds soar on plans for new currency market

The OPEC nation's sovereign bonds rose over 3 percent and the bonds from the state oil company jumped more than 9 percent after Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said the creation of a long-awaited swap or "permuta" foreign exchange system would be in place before the end of February. The system would allow the exchange of bonds in bolivars for dollars at a rate weaker than the official one. Ramirez, who is also Venezuela's vice president for the economy, told local media the new system "will be more transparent and would allow different public and private players to participate and bring foreign currency in." More...