Mexico Swaps $500 Million Dollar-Denominated Debt

Mexico swapped $500 million of dollar-denominated bonds, Friday, in exchange for local-currency debt. The debt swap is part of a larger program which aims to continue cutting Mexico’s external debt in favor of domestic debt. Last November, Mexico sold $65 million of warrants to enable investors to swap $2.5 billion dollar-denominated securities for peso debt this year. Then in March this year, the sovereign sold warrants to swap euro-denominated bonds worth $722 million (€600 million) into local-currency bonds due in 2013 and 2023. Mexico is hoping to bring down its foreign debt-to-GDP ratio to around 6% by the end of this year from around 12% in 2000.