NTMA nears minimum 2024 funding target with €1bn bond sale

Ireland’s debt manager sold bonds worth €1 billion on Thursday, as the State nears its minimum funding target for the year.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) offloaded the debt through two bonds, it said in a statement.

It sold €600 million worth of 2.6 per cent bonds due to mature in 2034, and €400 million of 0.55 per cent bonds that will mature in 2041.

The yield, or interest rate, on the ten year debt was 2.882 per cent – just above the 2.75 per cent yield on the last tranche of benchmark debt it sold in March. The auction was 2.05 times over subscribed.

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The 2041 bonds meanwhile were sold at a yield of 3.064 per cent. Those bonds were 2.52 time oversubscribed.

The sale means the NTMA has now raised €5 billion on the international markets so far this year. The agency has said previously it plans to raise between €6 billion and €10 billion over the course of 2024.

This latest auction came against a backdrop of an expectation that the European Central Bank (ECB) will cut interest rates for the first time in nearly two years next month. The Bank of England is expected to leave interest rates unchanged later today, while in the US the Federal Reserve is still seen as likely to start cutting rates this year, albeit at a slower pace given that inflation has remained above 3 per cent. It also came ahead of Irish inflation data also due to be published today.

This is the only bond sale the NTMA plans to run before the end of June.

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