Irish bond yields slump and Irish bank shares fall as Rehn fuels talk of ECB action in September

Sky-high expectations the ECB will sanction a large stimulus next month to help Germany and other parts of the eurozone to avoid recession sent the market costs of Irish government borrowing to a new low, as Irish bank shares were hit again.

Comments by Oli Rehn, the governor of the Finnish central bank, in an interview with Dow Jones helped push Italy’s 10-year government bond yield to a near three-year low, and Germany’s 10-year bond yield sank to a fresh record low, while the Irish 10-year bond fell to minus 0.15% -- theoretically implying that investors buying Irish Government debt would have to pay the Government interest for lending out their money, and not the other way around.