By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's debt agency has told investors it would like to issue 15-year debt to refinance the first portion of bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund, two sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Ireland is seeking to reduce the cost of its debt by repaying its more expensive IMF loans early with funds raised at cheaper market rates. Its debt office has said it may begin the process before year-end once a deal is signed off.
The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) met a number of market participants last week and said ideally it would like to use the first repayment to extend the maturity profile of the debt out to 2029, the sources said.
A spokesman for the NTMA declined to comment on the matter.
The meetings were held before financial markets were spooked this week by fears of global economic weakness and deflationary risks, budget problems in France and Italy and rising political risk in Greece.
Lower-rated euro zone bonds clawed back some losses on Friday after one of the sharpest sell-offs since the height of the 2012 euro crisis. Irish 10-year yields fell back to 1.76 percent from Thursday's two-month high of 1.90.
The Irish government has estimated that it will save around 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) on debt servicing costs over the next five years by refinancing 18.3 billion euros of its IMF loans in three equal tranches between now and 2016.
Ireland borrowed a total of 22.5 billion euros from the IMF in 2011 as part of the 67.5 billion euro aid package sought in the bailout which it completed last year.
Dublin has built assumed savings from the refinancing into its budget for next year, presented to parliament on Tuesday.
Together with drastically improved growth prospects, the lower projected interest payments helped finance minister Michael Noonan cut income taxes and increase public spending for the first time in seven years.
Dublin has won agreement from Europe to pay the IMF before it repays aid from the European bailout funds and just needs the new Swedish government to formally ratify the amended terms in parliament before the agreement is fully signed off.
(1 US dollar = 0.7827 euro)
(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)