Saudi Arabia sells $7bn in bonds as oil drop hits budget: reports

Saudi Arabia is looking to raise more than $7bn in bond sales this week in a bid to offset some of the losses from the steep oil price decline in recent weeks. According to Reuters, the Saudi ministry of finance sold $2.5bn in 5-year bonds at 260 basis points (bps) over US treasuries, $1.5bn in 10-year bonds at 270 bps over the same benchmark and $3bn in 40-year bonds at 4.55%. Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter, but is tapping the market after it agreed an output cut with other major oil-producing nations at the end of last week. However despite the deal among OPEC memb...