Foreign buyers snap up Irish government bonds

More than €2bn worth of Irish government bonds were snapped up in February with foreign investors becoming increasingly interested in the State securities.

The total value of outstanding government bonds stood at €122.13bn in February, with those held by non-residents now making up almost 60% of the overall value.

The percentage of Government bond holdings of non-residents climbed to 58.7% from 51.3% a year previous, with the increase principally due to a significant proportion of new Irish government bonds being purchased.