Holders of Irish Government Bonds - March 2016

View information release with charts (PDF 504.47KB) and related data tables

Key Developments

• The nominal value outstanding of government bonds decreased by €1,474 million to €127,298 million in March 2016.
• Within the next 5 years, €56,914 million of government bonds will mature, of which €22,927 million will mature in the next 3 years.

Outstanding government bonds stood at €127,298 million in March 2016, with Irish residents holding 40.4 per cent of the total. Irish credit institutions and the Central Bank of Ireland account for 92.7 per cent of the resident holdings (Chart 2).

Within the next 5 years, €56,914 million of government bonds will mature (Table 1). Of this, €22,927 million will mature in the next 3 years, with a further €33,987 million in the two years after. Non-residents hold 69.4 per cent of these maturing bonds (Chart 1).

Non-resident holdings decreased over the month to €75.9 billion. While this is €1.6bn greater than this time last year, the percentage holdings have decreased slightly, from 60.3 per cent to 59.6 per cent of total holdings.

Detailed tables and the explanatory notes can be found on the Central Bank of Ireland’s website here.

Notes

(i) Data are sourced from the Central Bank of Ireland
(ii) Data refer to €-denominated debt securities

Further information

This data series was published for the first time in March 2014. The new series beginning in March 2013 is based on improved information sources, so it is not directly comparable with previous publications. Care should, therefore, be exercised in comparing the new series with earlier publications.

The change has arisen due to the introduction of the Securities Holdings Regulation by the ECB in March 2013. The dataset is compiled from data submitted by all custodians resident in Ireland, direct reporting by end investors and information from the Government Bond Register held by the Central Bank to provide breakdowns by maturity and by holding sector.