By Emese Bartha

Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency sees reduced requirement for borrowing at higher rates in the coming years, thanks to its prefunding with more than 30 billion euros ($30.55 billion) in cash at mid-2022, it said in its mid-year business update on Thursday.

With almost 60% of this year's funding completed before the recent move in rates, NTMA expects that the average rate on Ireland's debt will remain close to the recent low of 1.5% this year, and that the interest bill for 2022 will remain at a similar level to 2021, it said.

The long average life of the medium- and long-term debt portfolio, 10.7 years, also means that Ireland's refinancing requirements are relatively limited in the years ahead, reducing refinancing risk in a period when markets now anticipate significant interest rate increases by central banks, NTMA said.

On average only 4% to 7% of Ireland's debt stock falls due for refinancing each year over the next decade, it said.

So far in 2022 the NTMA has issued EUR5.75 billion in benchmark bonds at a weighted average yield of 0.76% and a weighted average maturity of 13 years, representing almost 60% of the lower end of the 2022 target range of EUR10 billion to EUR14 billion, it said.

Write to Emese Bartha at emese.bartha@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 07, 2022 06:01 ET (10:01 GMT)

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