Bond auctions to begin in March

THE debt-raising arm of the Government hopes to start bond auctions in March and aims to raise around €10 billion from such sales, ideally held monthly, a senior official said yesterday.

Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has had to step up borrowing this year to fund a widening budget deficit.

After raising €10bn via two syndicated issues in January and February, it aims to raise a further €15bn by the end of the year, mostly via the auctions.

“We would hope to commence them in March. We have not finessed the details yet,” the NTMA’s director of funding and debt management, Oliver Whelan, said in an interview.