DUBLIN: Ireland on Tuesday sold 2.5-billion-euros ($3.26 billion) of long-term sovereign debt, the government said, sparking hopes that Dublin could become the first eurozone nation to exit a bailout programme.
Ireland received strong demand with orders worth more than 7.0 billion euros, pushing the yield to 3.35 percent, the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said in a statement.
The NTMA, the body responsible for borrowing on behalf of the state, had on Monday said it would reopen the 2017 Treasury bonds which it had also issued in July.
The amount raised also represents a quarter of the 10 billion euros which the Irish government hopes to raise on the markets this year.
Back in July, Dublin raised 3.8 billion euros at a yield of 5.9 percent for the 2017 bond.
Ireland was rescued with a vast 85-billion-euro EU/IMF bailout in November 2010 following the collapse of its economy.
Tuesday's yield brings the cost of borrowing on the open market below the rates given to Ireland under the terms of its EU-IMF bailout programme.
It is also significantly lower than the average cost of borrowing prior to entering the bailout programme in 2010, when the yield was around 4.7 percent.
Owen Callan, Senior Fixed Income Strategist at Danske Bank Markets, said the move suggests that Ireland is gradually regaining creditworthiness in the eyes of international investors.
"The issuance should fully clear Ireland's 'funding cliff' in January 2014 and will also be important for Ireland's hopes of getting positively re-rated by the major ratings agencies," he said.
"It should also support further steps by the Irish banks in regaining market access of their own during 2013."
Dublin has steadfastly implemented a painful policy of tax rises and spending cuts since the collapse of its economy exposed to the downturn in global markets and an overreliance on a domestic property bubble.
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