THE AGENCY RESPONSIBLE for managing Ireland’s debt is to return to the markets for a fifth time since the November 2010 bailout on Thursday.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which intends to raise another €500 million, announced the auction of short-term bonds this morning.

The sale of three-month Treasury Bills will follow the same format as the successful auctions undertaken in the past two months and shows a move by the NTMA to make its issuances more regular and scheduled.

The Government will hope to see a further fall in the cost of borrowing  or, at the very least, a stable interest rate.

When last issued on 18 October, the yield was 0.7 per cent – the same was what was paid to investors in September for similar debt.

This was a significant decrease on the yield of 1.8 per cent seen during an auction in July, the first since the EU/IMF intervention.

A separate round of bond activity, where Ireland raised €4.19 billion in longer-term loans followed later that same month. NTMA is still testing the waters with these so-called T-Bills and it is unlikely the selling of debt with longer maturities will be tabled just yet.

Ireland’s cost of borrowing stable as €500 million raised on markets