Ireland on Thursday auctioned 500 million euros of 12-month treasury bills.

In a statement, Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said the treasury bills were sold at a yield of -0.5 percent.

Total bids received amounted to 1.695 billion euros, which were 3.4 times the amount on offer, it said.
The agency sold the same amount of 12-month paper in its last treasury bill auction in June at a yield of -0.41 percent.

In Ireland, the NTMA is responsible for borrowing on behalf of the government and managing the national debt.

Last week the agency raised a total of 1 billion euros in a dual bond auction.

It sold 550 million euros of nine-year bonds at a yield of 0.689 percent and 450 million euros of 20-year bonds at a yield of 1.648 percent at auction.

With the completion of Thursday's auction, the NTMA has issued 11 billion-euro benchmark bonds from its stated target range of 9 to 13 billion euros in the bond markets this year. (1 Euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars)