The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) sold €750 million of short-term debt that is due to mature in five months' time at a near-record negative annualised interest rate.

The so-called Treasury Bills were priced to carry a yield of minus 0.57 per cent, marginally more expensive than the record negative rate of minus 0.58 per cent attached to similar debt auctioned last month.

The negative rates are a result of European Central Bank’s multi-trillion-euro bond-buying programmes and the negative rate it applies to deposits placed with the institution by banks.

The NTMA last week completed its full-year effort to raise €24 billion in long-term debt to help fund costs to the Government from dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.