€985bn owing at end of January
Long-term Government debt increased by 6% during the year to €90.4bn at the end of January. Irish resident investors held 28% of Government bonds at the end of January, which is a 5% increase compared with the end of Jan 2012. The banks now hold €22.8bn of sovereign debt.
But just as the Irish Government and private sector are reducing debt levels, the trend is an increase in debt across the rest of the eurozone.
The NTMA took its first step back into the private markets last July since the country entered the EU/IMF bailout programme in Nov 2010, with the first in a series of €500m three-month treasury bill sales. In August, it raised €2.5bn in a 2017 bond sale through a syndicated tap. The agency plans to raise €10bn this year, in order to pre-fund the State’s borrowing requirements to the end of 2014.
The head of the NTMA, John Corrigan, has said that he plans to issue a 10-year bond over the coming months.
Roughly 51% of all Irish Government debt held by domestic investors will mature over the next five years, with a further 40% of bonds held by non-resident investors maturing between 2020 and 2025.
The amount of outstanding debt issued by the banks stood at €85bn at the end of January, which is a year-on-year decrease of 24%. The amount of short- term debt contracted by 42% to the end of January.
The outstanding amount of the banking sector’s equity securities fell by almost 6% in January to €16.5bn, said the Central Bank.
Bank of Ireland was the first of the covered banks to issue debt not covered by the Government guarantee last October. AIB issued a three-year asset backed security in January, which raised a further €500m.
