MILAN: Italy's 10-year debt costs fell to their lowest since October 2005 at a sale on Friday as a surprise drop in Spanish inflation bolstered expectations of monetary easing by the European Central Bank and pushed down Rome's yields on secondary market.

Italy sold a total of 10 billion euros ($13.7 billion) in bonds, at the top of its planned range.

The treasury placed the 10-year paper coming due in September 2024 at an average 3.29 percent yield, down from 3.42 percent at the previous sale one month ago.

The 3.75 billion euros sale was covered 1.25 times compared with a bid-to-cover rate of 1.6 at the end-February auction. Rome issued 3 billion euros of a five-year bond at an average yield of 1.88 percent, a record low for the paper.

It also pocketed 3.25 billion euros selling a floating-rate certificate coming due on Nov. 15, 2019.