NTMA to hold bond auctions

Ireland is to proceed with plans to hold bond auctions next week, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said today.

Ireland is to proceed with plans to hold bond auctions next week, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said today.

The NTMA will auction a 4 per cent bond maturing in 2014 and a 4.5 per cent bond maturing in 2020 on Tuesday next.

Late last month the agency had said it might postpone its monthly bond auction in May due to bond pricing.

The rate demanded by investors to hold bonds has risen sharply in recent weeks on the back of the economic crisis in Greece.

The premium charged for Irish 10-year debt over the German benchmark equivalent currently stands at 1.785 percentage points but rose to as much as 2.55 percentage points two weeks ago on investor concerns about euro zone economies.