Ireland returns to 10-year bond market

Ireland on Wednesday returned to the 10-year bond market for the first time since it benefited from an international bailout in 2010. Dublin raised five billion euros ($6.48 billion) in an auction, almost double the amount predicted by analysts, while the rate of interest was around 4.15 percent, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The Dublin government has yet to confirm the result of the auction. "The successful bond auction is another important step on the path to Ireland regaining confidence in international financial markets," Paul McCann, Managing Partner of business advisory firm Grant Thornton, told AFP. "It shows investors are taking seriously the measures the Irish government has introduced to get the nation’s finances under control." The country's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) had on Tuesday announced plans to issue a 10-year bond maturing in March 2023. Meanwhile Wednesday's auction was the first time that Dublin had raised money on the 10-year bond markets since the cost of borrowing for Dublin spiralled to unsustainable levels and forced the country to seek an 85-billion-euro rescue programme from the EU and IMF in late 2010. NTMA had tested the bond markets already in 2013, raising 2.5 billion euros in five-year loans in January, coupled with monthly short-term auctions. However, issuing a ten-year bond is seen as a key step towards Ireland exiting its bailout programme. The programme has regularly been praised by the EU and the IMF -- with Dublin hoping to be the first eurozone nation to exit a bailout by the end of this year.