Ireland’s government has instructed the country’s debt agency to complete the early repayment of loans borrowed from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Finance Minister Michael Noonan said yesterday.

Dublin has been replacing more than €18 billion of the €22.5 billion borrowed from the IMF with cheaper market funding, and raised €1 billion of 30-year debt at a yield of 1.3 per cent yesterday, far more favourable terms that its 2010 bailout loans.

“I have instructed the National Treasury Management Agency to proceed with the early repayment of the final €5.5 billion of IMF loans that we secured agreement to repay,” Noonan said.

“This early repayment of the majority of IMF loans will deliver savings of over €1.5 billion over the lifetime of the loans.”

Portugal, which was the third eurozone country to seek a bailout after Ireland and Greece, has also followed Dublin in seeking to repay its IMF loans ahead of schedule.

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