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THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK continued to wind down its purchases of Spanish and Italian government bonds, according to data issued today.
The ECB spent €6.65bn on its bond-buying programme last week, down from €14.3bn the previous week and €22bn a fortnight ago.
The controversial programme was revived three weeks ago amid concerns that Spain and Italy – two of Europe’s largest economies – could be priced out of the regular money markets and forced to seek a European bailout.
The ECB now holds a total of €115.5bn in Eurozone bonds – including a sizeable amount of Irish bonds – and said it intended to continue its bond-buying programme for at least another week.
Bloomberg reports that Italy is preparing a bond auction this week, trying to raise €3.75bn in a move that will be a key indicator of whether the medium-term threat of needing a bailout has been averted.
The market cost of borrowing for Italy has risen back above the 5 per cent mark in recent days, and neared 5.1 per cent for a 10-year loan today, though it remains well below the 6.4 per cent mark it touched before the ECB’s purchases kicked in.
In Spain’s case, the cost of borrowing is almost precisely 5 per cent, down from 6.3 per cent three weeks ago.
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I plan, to win the lotto this year too. If the NTMA can, live in fantasy land then so can I.
Just too mention there will be a flying green pig in the south east of the skys tonight , while were on the subject of fantasy ..
Great to see some Irish positivity fellas. Sure why would outsiders want to invent in this great country if we don’t have any faith in ourselves.
hats off to any investors who are willing to take the gamble. I just cant see how this whole thing is sustainable, whether the money comes from bailouts or bondholders its just debt on top of debt.
Granted, many countries have huge debt, but combine this with slow growth, high unemployment, trembling currency. If we just took bigger initial pain ,and restructured our debt over the space of 50 years or something, and partially defaulted , at least then people might actually start spending again.
This government has to keep borrowing to maintain the Croke Oark agreement. Why? Let’s start again as the climate has changed. Let’s benchmark all in the Croke Park deal including politicians with not germ Ireland and the UK. Then subtract 15% to allow for dept repayment. Our next generations deserve better from this government. Start cutting and living within our means – going back to markets means a repeat of the same again.
Why should public sector workers take another paycut?! I have lost 30% of my salary over the last 3 years. I completely agree that there are many civil servants who are on ridiculously high pay but what about the nurses, gardai, firemen etc who provide essential services but were never on high salaries? We are really struggling as it is. Don’t tar us all with the same brush. Please.
Good luck with that .
More downgrades on its way. France will not longer be AAA tonight .
And with the Greeks heading for the beach it could be a while before our return to the markets. The most interesting thing the boss man from NTMA said that if they were they would not comment on Market sensitive info hardly and out and out denial
Sure by the time this comes along all the conditions will be permanent, if they want favorable interest rates then they need to opt-out of the euro. Funny how they can identify the problem but because they’ve vested interests they can’t get out ha. Only ever covering them and their buddies.
This would be a very positive step forward were we able to self finance. However market sentiment means a lot in these situations and it remains to be seen how things pan out in Europe but hopefully we can get out of the Troika programme sooner rather than later.
If i keep getting into more and more debt what happens?
Also how do I convince people to give me loans when they know I’m already crippled with debt?
Did you ever hear so much shite in your life lol!!!!
They have about the same chance of returning to the markets as I do of getting a sub on my wages from Merkel
The guardian is reporting we are to be downgraded two notches – hard to see us being able to borrow again
Ha ha ha
Let us know how that works out Ireland
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UniBond Market
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That’s a really bleak looking flag in your photo…
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