Holders of Irish Government Bonds - July 2015

9 Sep 2015 Press Release

View information release with charts and related data series.

Breakdown of Holders of Government Bonds

  • The nominal value outstanding of government bonds increased by €44 million to €124,426 million in July 2015.
  • Non-residents have significantly increased their holdings of Irish Government bonds over the past year, to 58.9 per cent of outstanding bonds, up from 52.9 per cent 12-months earlier.

Outstanding government bonds1 stood at €124,426 million in July 2015, with just 11.7 per cent due to mature in less than three years. At end-July 2015, Irish residents held 41.1 per cent of long-term Irish government bonds. Irish credit institutions and the Central Bank of Ireland, account for 92.6 per cent of the resident holdings (Chart 2).
Bond holdings of non-residents stood at 58.9 per cent in July 2015 (compared to 52.9 per cent 12 months earlier), albeit this is decrease from 59.8 per cent in June 2015. This reflects the large proportion of recently issued Irish government bonds being purchased by non-residents.

Within the next 5 years, €49.9 billion nominal value of Government bonds will mature (Table 1). Non-residents hold 68.5 per cent of these maturing bonds (Chart 1).
Detailed tables and the explanatory notes can be found on the Central Bank of Ireland’s website here.

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 December 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 December 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.

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1 Please see background information above and the explanatory notes for further information.