Irish 10-year bond yields fall to their lowest in history
As Greece, one of Ireland's fellow PIGS, continues to struggle, has the Celtic Tiger's zeal returned? The country's 10-year bond yields fell below one per cent for the first time in history this morning, suggesting investor confidence in the country is at an all-time high.
During the depths of the crisis, yields spiked as high as 14 per cent, but in recent years a tough regime of austerity has shored up confidence in the country's ability to repay its debts, despite its debt pile still standing at 123.3 per cent of GDP, according to Eurostat.
To add to that confidence, figures published in February suggested, once again, that Ireland was the fastest-growing economy in Europe in 2014, with GDP rising 4.8 per cent. Britain, meanwhile, was 2.4 per cent, according to the forecasts from Brussels.
The European Central Bank's decision to start buying €60bn of Eurozone bonds a month from March has also pushed yields down as investors piled into Irish debt.