Holders of Irish Government Bonds - January 2016 

09 March 2016 Press Release

View information release with charts and related data tables.

Summary

  • The nominal value outstanding of government bonds increased by €2,926 million to €128,012 million in January 2016.
  • Within the next 5 years, €58,135 million of government bonds will mature, €23,808 of this within the next 3 years.

Outstanding government bonds stood at €128,012 million in January 2016, with Irish residents holding 40.2 per cent of the total. Irish credit institutions and the Central Bank of Ireland account for 92.3 per cent of the resident holdings (Chart 2).

Within the next 5 years, €58,135 million of government bonds will mature (Table 1). Of this, €23,808 will mature in the next 3 years, with a further €34,327 million in the two years after. Non-residents hold 69 per cent of these maturing bonds (Chart 1).

During the month, the NTMA raised €3,000 million from the issue of a new 10 year Irish Government bond, this bond has a coupon rate of 1 per cent. According to the NTMA funding statement for 2016, the agency plans to issue between €6,000 and €10,000 million of long-term government bonds this year.

Holdings of non-residents increased over the month to €76.5 billion. Over the past year the non-resident holdings have risen from 57.9 per cent to 59.8 percent of the total (an increase of €7,002 million).

Notes

(i)       Data are sourced from the Central Bank of Ireland

(ii)     Data refer to €-denominated debt securities

Background information

This data series was published for the first time in March 2014. The new series beginning in January 2013 is based on improved information sources, so it is not directly comparable with previous publications. Care should, therefore, be exercised in comparing the new series with earlier publications.

The change has arisen due to the introduction of the Securities Holdings Regulation by the ECB in January 2013. The dataset is compiled from data submitted by all custodians resident in Ireland, direct reporting by end investors and information from the Government Bond Register held by the Central Bank to provide breakdowns by maturity and by holding sector.