The Gov­ern­ment’s lat­est US$800 mil­lion sov­er­eign bond may have at­tract­ed over­whelm­ing in­vestor de­mand, but econ­o­mists are warn­ing that the more im­por­tant sto­ry is the grow­ing cost of bor­row­ing and the long-term bur­den the debt could place on the coun­try’s fi­nances.

Econ­o­mist Dr Jamelia Har­ris said the bond’s re­port­ed 400 per cent over­sub­scrip­tion should not dis­tract from the fact that this coun­try is pay­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly more to bor­row than it did a decade ago.

“The de­mand for a bond is im­por­tant, but even more im­por­tant is the re­turns in­vestors are ask­ing for, that is, the price of the bond,” Har­ris said.