Brasília, November 20, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - In October, the volume of federal public debt instruments due in 12 months declined from 41.10% to 40.04% of the debt total. According to a report released today by the Secretariat of the Federal Treasury and the Central Bank, the reduction was a result of the large amount of maturities, R$ 37.3 billion (US$ 10.58 billion), which occurred during the period.

Ronnie Tavares, Public Debt Operations coordinator at the Federal Treasury, recalled that in March of this year, the total of debt instruments maturing in 12 months corresponded to 23.62% of the debt total, but in December, 1999, these maturities represented 53.01% of the total. (DAS)