France sells extra 1.8bn euros of bonds after auction

PARIS: France sold an extra 1.4 billion euros ($1.58 billion) of fixed-rate, medium-term bonds and 443 million euros of inflation linked bonds after a regular auction, the Agence France Tresor public debt management agency said on Friday.

The non-competitive bids means that it sold a total of 8.42 billion of the fixed-rate bonds at the auction and 2.290 billion euros of linkers, AFT said.

Under the French system, buyers not only submit competitive bids at the auction, but also have the option, for a limited period after the sale, of buying extra securities at the average auction price.

The extra amount they can buy is calculated according to how active they have been at previous sales.