The issue was also the highest demand in the State of Israel’s history oversubscribed in demand at $25 billion . In this move, Israel joins a limited number of countries in the world that issued in this range.

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Bank of America Securities, Barclays Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Citibank acted as underwriters for the issue.

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Israel issued the bonds to help finance the NIS 80 billion ($22 B.) Coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency aid package the country announced earlier this week to assist the economy which has come to an almost complete standstill.

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Over one million Israelis registered for unemployment in the last month, an uptick from the 30,000 who registered last month.

In a press conference on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the high demand for the bonds was “additional proof of the confidence that the global financial markets have in the Israeli economy.

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“Leading global financial elements stormed after our bonds and this is a great expression of confidence in the Israeli economy. It joins the expression of confidence that ranked us in first place in the index of the safest countries in dealing with the coronavirus,” he stated.

Israel on Tuesday was ranked the safest place in the world in regard to the outbreak of the Coronavirus by the Deep Knowledge Group, a consortium of organizations and companies working in breakthrough technology and high tech engineering innovation through scientific advances.

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Netanyahu noted that “businesses and economies are collapsing around the world. This is not unique to Israel and in Israel, I would say that the situation is better. We are capable of making these corrections, of presenting this assistance, because our economy is strong and we will see to it that it remains such.”