Foray a good exercise in reasserting sovereignty

The Government’s foray into the sovereign debt markets yesterday came a bit sooner than expected but the rationale for the move is clear.

If Ireland is to exit the troika bailout programme at the end of 2013, then it has to convince the markets it can meet its funding needs over the following few years. There is a €18.6bn funding requirement in 2014 and 2015.

Last January the Government swapped €3.5bn worth of bonds maturing in Jan 2014 for €3.5bn of bonds maturing in Jan 2015. The latest move took a further €1.04bn from bonds maturing in Jan 2014 and swapped them with bonds maturing in 2017 and 2020.