{"id":488965,"date":"2026-05-17T09:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T09:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/488965\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T09:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T09:12:11","slug":"state-redeems-e11bn-bond-with-little-fuss-but-iran-war-clouds-economys-future-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/488965\/","title":{"rendered":"State redeems \u20ac11bn bond with little fuss but Iran war clouds economy\u2019s future \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In other times, a lumpy double-digit billion euro bond redemption would have had senior figures at the National Treasury Management Agency<\/a> (NTMA)frantically working the markets over a period of months to put in place replacement funds to help finance the State. <\/p>\n

The State agency and the Department of Finance<\/a> would also have been busy trying to manage communications with key global media outlets and the ratings agencies to ensure the right messaging around the health and stability of the Irish economy and the State\u2019s ability to repay its borrowings. <\/p>\n

These days, there are barely enough buckets to collect the cash that\u2019s falling from the Irish exchequer money tree, allowing a \u20ac11.6 billion bond redemption (plus an additional \u20ac100 million final coupon payment) on Friday to fly under the radar. <\/p>\n

The 1 per cent treasury bond was issued in January 2016 as a 10-year benchmark bond in a \u20ac3 billion syndicated transaction at a yield of 1.16 per cent. <\/p>\n

The yield reflected the low-interest rate environment of the time, supported by quantitative easing measures from the European Central Bank<\/a>. A different era to today.<\/p>\n

The bond was subsequently tapped on 11 occasions, the last one being in 2021, bringing it up to the \u20ac11 billion-plus range at redemption. <\/p>\n

Add in \u20ac3.3 billion that was also repaid via two loans and that\u2019s \u20ac20 billion of maturities by the State that went largely unnoticed. <\/p>\n

The next big payment will be in May 2027, when a \u20ac7.8 billion bond falls due. <\/p>\n

As of now, that shouldn\u2019t be an issue. At the end of April the exchequer had cash and liquid assets of almost \u20ac29 billion, albeit that these are expected to reduce to \u20ac25 billion by year end. <\/p>\n

The Government surplus for this year was recently upgraded to about \u20ac9.2 billion, helped by the continued rise in various taxes. And the State is due to net \u20ac931 million from the sale of its stake in PTSB<\/a>, which is under offer from Austria\u2019s Bawag. <\/p>\n

This week, NTMA chief Frank O\u2019Connor told an Oireachtas committee that Ireland\u2019s national debt could approach \u20ac250 billion by the 2030s. <\/p>\n

He cautioned that such a level of debt carries risks and that the era of the State borrowing at low interest rates was over.<\/p>\n

If hostilities resume in the Middle East and the Iran war drags on, a global recession could be triggered. As a small open economy, Ireland would feel the impact. <\/p>\n

For now, the sun is shining on the Irish economy. O\u2019Connor will be hoping it stays that way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In other times, a lumpy double-digit billion euro bond redemption would have had senior figures at the National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,2355,22779,179,18,9652,19,17,101866,37657],"class_list":{"0":"post-488965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-cantillon","10":"tag-department-of-finance","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-european-central-bank-ecb","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-national-treasury-management-agency","17":"tag-ptsb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116589149870857114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}