After pursuing the toughest of tough negotiating lines, markets declared Angela Merkel and German bonds the victors from the weekend EU leaders’ summit by granting Greece a new €86bn bailout for three years without conceding to the demands of Greek leader Alexis Tsipras.

The interest rate on Government debt fell yesterday by roughly 0.2% as the markets reacted positively to the announcement on Friday night that Moody’s had upgraded Irish sovereign debt to investment grade.