Budapest - Hungary sold 1 billion euros of government bonds on Friday in its first eurobond issue since investors lost confidence in the country as the financial crisis hit last autumn.

The successful bond issue was twice the size originally planned, Finance Minister Peter Oszko told the state news agency MTI.

"There is a clear message in that investors oversubscribed the originally planned 500-million-euro issue by a factor of six," Oszko said.

Oszko said the purpose of the bond issue was not to finance the central budget, but to raise confidence and rebuild the market for Hungarian government debt.

Hungary had to take a 25-billion-dollar rescue loan from the International Monetary Fund, European Union and the World Bank last October to avoid defaulting on its foreign debts.

Analysts noted that Hungary may no longer need to draw down more money from its IMF loan facility this year.(dpa)