Belgium aims at 2.5bn euros in first auction

BRUSSELS: Belgium plans to raise between 1.8 and 2.5 billion euros ($2.32 - $3.23 bn) in short-term debt at an auction on Tuesday, the country's debt agency said on Friday.

The country plans to sell April and June 2012 treasury bills in what will be the first auction of 2012. In December, the yield for three-month paper was 0.78 percent. That yield was off a three-year high of 2.185 percent at the previous auction, just before Belgian parties agreed to form a government after nearly 18 months of negotiations.

Belgium last sold six-month bills in November for a yield of 2.438 percent. On Dec. 16 Moody's cut Belgium's credit rating by two notches to Aa3, saying that the euro zone debt crisis increased funding risks for countries with high public debt burdens.

Copyright Reuters, 2011