DUBLIN – Ireland has repaid 9 billion euros ($11 billion) to the International Monetary Fund several years early, a move that saves heavy interest costs and illustrates the strong Irish rebound after its bailout.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan thanked European Union partners for permitting the early repayment, which required special parliamentary approval by other EU members.
Ireland received 67.5 billion euros from EU partners and the IMF in 2010 to fund the country through 2013. This year Ireland resumed borrowing at increasingly low interest rates, making the average 5 percent rate on the IMF loans punitive.
Noonan said the repayment, representing two-fifths of the total IMF loans to Ireland, would save 750 million euros ($925 million) in interest.
Ireland plans to repay another 9 billion euros to the IMF in early 2015.
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