DUBLIN: The State paid just more than €1 billion in interest on its International Monetary Fund bailout loans last year, according to figures from the National Treasury Management Agency.
This was just €13 million shy of the interest payment made to two euro zone funds even though those institutions provided almost twice as much financial assistance to Ireland as part of the country’s €68.2 billion bailout programme in 2010.
The figures make the case for Ireland’s decision to repay early some €18 billion of its €22.5 billion in IMF loans. To date, the NTMA has repaid €12.5 billion of the IMF money, replacing it with cheaper market funding.
It is expected to repay another €5.5 billion to the Washington DC-based IMF by the end of this year. The IMF loans were originally due to be paid back between July 2015 and December 2023.
