Italy's 1-year borrowing costs edge up to 1.94 percent

MILAN: Italy's one-year borrowing costs edged up at an auction on Wednesday as persistent uncertainty on a bailout request from Spain is reducing investor appetite for short-dated peripheral debt.

The Treasury sold 8 billion euros bills maturing on Oct. 14 2013 paying a yield of 1.94 percent, the highest since August.

It had paid 1.69 percent on a similar maturity at a mid-September sale when the European Central Bank's commitment to intervene in the bond market boosted investors' demand for Italian short-term paper.

On Wednesday the Treasury issued also 3 billion euros of three-month bill with a yield of 0.765 percent, slightly up from 0.7 percent at mid-September auction.