State seeking to raise €1bn in bond sale this week

The State is seeking to raise up to €1 billion through an auction of Irish treasury bills on Thursday, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has announced.

There will be two bonds offered in the auction, one with a yield of 0.35 per cent that will mature in 2032, and another with a yield of 1.7 per cent that will mature in 2037.

The latest auction will be conducted on the Bloomberg Auction System, and is confined to recognised primary dealers. It will open at 8am and close at 10am.

A non-competitive auction for 15 per cent of the amount sold in the competitive auction will immediately follow, and will close at 10am on March 14th.

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The NTMA raised €3.5 billion selling 10-year bonds earlier this year, completing more than a third of its minimum full-year funding target less than two weeks into 2022.

The agency aims to raise €10 billion to €14 billion in international bond markets in 2022, marking a decline of up to 46 per cent on the amount raised last year as the Government’s Covid-related spending eases.

From a budget surplus in 2019, the Government deficit ballooned to €18.4 billion in 2020 before narrowing in 2021 to about €9 billion.

The total fiscal response to the Covid-19 crisis so far has amounted to €48.4 billion, or 12.9 per cent of GDP, with more than 80 per cent directed at supporting employees, households and businesses, as well as increased health and capital spending.