Government in 'comfortable position' to finance its Covid-19 costs

Exchequer has resources of about €40bn going into the second half of the year, says economist

The National Treasury Management Agency raised a total of €1.5bn in its latest auction of sovereign bonds across a number of benchmarks bonds.

The Government so far is "in a comfortable position" to finance its Covid-19 bills through this year, the chief economist at the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) has said. 

Eddie Casey at IFAC, which was set up  following the last financial crisis, said the exchequer has resources of about €40bn going into the second half of the year – before it takes account of its Covid-related 2021 budget deficit and sovereign bond repayments.