Investing.com - aly saw borrowing costs rise to the highest level since October 2012 at an auction of three-year government bonds on Thursday, amid ongoing concerns over the health of the euro zone's third-largest economy.
Italy's Treasury sold EUR4 billion worth of three-year government bonds at an average yield of 2.72%, the highest since October and up from 2.33% at a similar auction last month.
Rome also sold EUR1.5 billion of 15-year debt at an average yield of 4.88% compared to a yield of 4.67% at a previous auction.
The yield on Italian 10-year bonds stood at 4.525% following the auction.
Data released earlier in the week showed that the recession in Italy was deeper than had been previously thought.
The economy contracted by 0.3% in the second quarter, worse than the initial estimate of a 0.2% contraction, bringing the annualized rate of contraction to 2.1% from the initial estimate for a 2% contraction.
The euro was lower against the U.S. dollar following the auction, with EUR/USD easing down 0.15% to trade at 1.3289.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were lower. Italy FTSE MIB Index fell 0.95%, the EURO STOXX 50 dipped 0.2%, France's CAC 40 shed 0.5%, Germany's DAX declined 0.25%, while London's FTSE 100 eased down 0.35%.
Investing.com - Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com or Follow us on Twitter at @ InvestingCom
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
