The National Treasury Management Agency has purchased €500m of Government bonds from the Central Bank and cancelled them in a further speeding up of a timetable tied to a 2013 deal to ease the debt burden.
As part of a deal with the European Central Bank to stretch out the cost of liquidating Anglo Irish Bank, the NTMA said it would slowly feed new bonds worth €25 billion into the market via the Central Bank.
Last year, the Central Bank sold the minimum €500m of bonds acquired during the financial crisis but, under pressure from the ECB, it has now disposed of €1.5 billion this year.
he Central Bank is obliged to sell at least another €500m a year until 2018.
