Uruguay central bank says no financing rush

Mario Bergara, President of Uruguay's Central Bank, speaks at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Montevideo, May 7, 2009.

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) - Uruguay has no urgent need to go to the international markets to finance the country's fiscal deficit, although market conditions are "reasonable" for placing new bonds, Central Bank President Mario Bergara said on Thursday.

Uruguay's government recently revised its forecast for its 2009 fiscal deficit to 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product from a previous outlook of 1 percent, due to the global recession and to a severe drought that triggered an energy shortage in the South American country.

Bergara told the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Montevideo that the beef-producing country had already locked in loans to cover a lot of the deficit.

"The debt administration policy and public finances have allowed us to have a large part of the deficit pre-financed," he said.

However, "we are always analyzing the best possible moment to take decisions as far as issuing debt internationally," he said.

"The situation where markets were practically closed has passed and conditions aren't too bad, you could say they are reasonable," he said.