The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has raised €1 billion through an auction of two Irish Government bonds.
The NTMA issued €700m through a 4.5% bond maturing in 2018, while a 4% five-year bond raised €300m. The average yield for the 2018 bond was 5.082%, while the five-year bond's yield was 4.2%.
The NTMA said total bids for the two bonds came to €1.24 billion, with analysts describing this as 'weak'.
Ireland must raise billions of euro this year to fund a budget deficit planned to be 10.75% of GDP, while plans for a National Asset Management Agency to clear the banks of bad assets mean even more money is likely to be needed.
The yields on Irish bonds, which had previously risen well above those for German bonds, have narrowed recently.
Moody's looking at bank guarantee debt
Credit rating agency Moody's has warned that it could cut the top AAA rating of debt issued by Irish banks under the Government guarantee scheme. Last week, Moody's issued a similar warning on Ireland's government debt rating.
It said it could strip Ireland of its AAA rating within three months - in line with earlier downgrades by Standard & Poor's and Fitch - if crises in the public finances and the banking sector hit prospects for economic recovery.
Today's warning applies to debt issued by AIB, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Life & Permanent, EBS and Irish Nationwide.
'The review on these instruments follows the placing on review for possible downgrade of the ratings of Ireland,' Moody's Investors Service said in a statement.
In February, Moody's changed its outlook on the 'backed-AAA' rated debt of the six Irish financial institutions to 'negative', following a similar change in the outlook on Ireland's sovereign debt rating.
Ireland's state guarantee for the liabilities of Irish-owned banks is set to expire in September 2010 but the Government is expected to extend it for some types of debt.
