Italy saw its short-term funding costs fall by half yesterday, as the first big test of market sentiment since the European Central Bank’s pre-Christmas bid to support banks provided a glimmer of hope in the eurozone debt crisis.
The successful auction of €9bn of six-month bills – sold at an average yield of 3.25 per cent, down from a euro-era record of 6.5 per cent last month – brought some relief early yesterday to Italy’s bond market, the world’s third-largest.
But, in thin trading, Italian bonds and the euro itself came under selling pressure in the afternoon, leaving Rome’s benchmark borrowing costs stuck above the crucial 7 per cent level.
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