DUBLIN: Ireland will repay early ¤9bn ($11.22bn) of its International Monetary Fund bailout loans by the end of the year on the back of a solid recovery, the finance ministry said yesterday.
The repayments represent roughly 40 percent of the original ¤22.5bn in loans received from the IMF when Ireland entered an EU-IMF bailout in late 2010.
The amounts had been due to be returned by July 2018.
“This transaction alone will save ¤750m over the lifetime of the IMF loans and further enhances the sustainability of our national debt,” Finance Minister Michael Noonan said.
Dublin required approval from the European Union and its bilateral loan partners — Sweden, Denmark and Britain — to proceed with the plan.
“It is essential that we improve our debt sustainability in order to break the boom and bust cycle of the past and the lowering of our debt servicing costs is a significant part of achieving this.
“Our EU and bilateral lenders have been very supportive of the government’s objective of improving Ireland’s debt sustainability since I discussed this issue with them in early September,” he added. Noonan plans for a similar repayment next year, resulting in total interest savings of ¤1.5bn over the lifetime of the loans.
Analysts hailed the move. “We’re swapping more expensive debt for cheaper debt which we sourced on the market,” Stephen Kinsella, lecturer in economics at the university of Limerick told RTE radio.
AFP
