Holders of Irish Government Bonds - December 2015

View information release with charts (PDF 506.91KB) and related data tables.

Breakdown of Holders of Government Bonds

• The nominal value outstanding of government bonds decreased by €363 million to €125,086 million in December 2015.

• Non-residents have increased their holdings of Irish Government bonds over the past year, to 59.4 per cent of outstanding bonds, up from 56.3 per cent 12-months earlier. Holdings by the combined resident credit institutions and Central Bank have increased €968 million over the past 3 months.

Outstanding government bonds stood at €125,086 million in December 2015, with 19 per cent due to mature in less than three years. At end-December 2015, Irish residents held 40.6 per cent of long-term Irish government bonds. Irish credit institutions and the Central Bank of Ireland account for 92.3 per cent of the resident holdings (Chart 2).

The holdings of Irish Government bonds by Irish credit institutions and the Central Bank of Ireland have increased by €968 million over the past 3 months.

Holdings of non-residents reduced over the month to €74.3 billion. However, over the past year the non-resident holdings have risen from 56.3 per cent to 59.4 percent of the total (an increase of €8.7 billion).

Within the next 5 years, €58.1 billion of Government bonds will mature (Table 1). Non-residents hold 69 per cent of these maturing bonds (Chart 1).
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

Background information

This data series was published for the first time in March 2014. The new series beginning in December 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 December 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.