Italy issued over eight billion euros of medium- and long-term bonds at encouragingly low interest rates on Friday, in a sign of easing fears among investors. The Italian treasury sold off a total of 8.148 billion euros of bonds ($11.17 billion), and had bidders for another four billion euros, the Bank of Italy said in a statement.
The three-year bonds yielded 3.12 percent and the seven-year bonds 2.55 percent, both rates below that of the last such issue by Italy in December - a welcome sign that investors' fears are easing. The ten year bonds yielded 4.73 percent, down marginally from the previous 4.8 percent.
Italy is considered a lower risk bet than Portugal and Spain, in particular because its public deficit is lower. In November, the debt reached a new high of 1.869 trillion euros ($2.45 trillion), according to a Bank of Italy statement earlier this month. Over this year, Italy plans to issue 50 billion euros a month.