Ireland’s borrowing costs hit a new record low today following the decision by Fitch to upgrade the State’s credit rating on Friday.

Fitch became the second major agency to restore an A-grade to the Irish economy in the wake of the financial crisis.

Benchmark 10-year yields fell 2.9 basis points to 1.97 per cent today putting the State’s borrowing costs below that of the US and UK.

Yields on Irish debt have fallen steadily since mid-2011, at the height of the euro zone debt crisis, when 10-year yields topped 14 per cent.

Yields on state bonds across the euro zone have also been falling in anticipation of further policy measures by the European Central Bank after last week’s poor growth data.

“The Irish Government has continued its multi-year fiscal consolidation program following the exit from the Troika program at the end of 2013 and remains compliant with domestic and euro zone fiscal rules,” Fitch said in a note accompanying its upgrade decision.

Fitch said it assumes that the efforts towards fiscal consolidation would continue in 2015 that would see the country exit the excessive deficit procedure by next year.

The excessive deficit procedure is an action launched by the European Commission against any European Union (EU) Member State that exceeds the budgetary deficit ceiling imposed by the EU’s Stability and growth pact legislation.