Italian bond sale sees record yields
Italy has managed to sell all €8bn (£6.85bn) of the six-month government debt it offered at auction, but at almost twice the rate of its previous sale.
The country was forced to offer 6.50 per cent interest on its bonds, up from 3.53 per cent in October, a record for this length of bond in the Euro era.
Meanwhile rates on Italy’s two-year government bonds climbed to over 7.8 per cent and ten-year bonds were trading at over 7.2 per cent.
The climbing rates came in spite of rumoured ECB intervention to purchase bonds before the auction in order to keep the yields down for the sale.
The auction came two days after Germany failed to sell all its ten-year bonds offered to investors.