The State sold €500 million in short-term debt yesterday in its fourth sale of treasury bills this year. The NTMA sold the bills, due on February 18th, at a yield of 0.55 per cent, compared with 0.7 per cent in October. The bid-to-cover ratio was 4.1 times, the NTMA said in a statement.

The result would help the NTMA to return to “normal” longer term syndicated issuance in the new year, said Fiona Howard, a senior bond trader at Davy.

Owen Callan, senior fixed income strategist at Danske Markets, said the sale was the best outcome so far in an NTMA T-Bill programme.

The result was an important step towards normalised market funding in 2013, Mr Callan added. “We’d now look to the NTMA to begin lengthening the tenor on their T-bill programme next year.” – (Additional reporting, Bloomberg)