Italy's Borrowing Costs Increase at 7.9 Billion-Euro Government Bond Sale
By Jeffrey Donovan - Sep 29, 2010 11:53 AM GMT+0200 Wed Sep 29 09:53:13 GMT 2010
Italy’s borrowing costs rose at the sale of 7.9 billion euros ($10.7 billion) of bonds today as concerns about the ability of so-called euro-peripheral nations to cut their deficits prompted investors to demand higher returns to hold their debt.
The Treasury sold 2.9 billion euros of bonds due June 2013 at an average yield of 2.21 percent, compared with 2.07 percent at the previous sale on Aug. 30. It sold 3 billion euros of bonds due in March 2021 to yield 3.9 percent, more than the 3.81 percent previously. The treasury also sold 1.99 billion euros of floating-rate notes due 2015 with a yield of 1.78 percent, more than the 1.74 percent in August.
Demand for the 2013 bonds was 1.52 times the amount sold, higher than the 1.45 times at the previous sale, and the bid-to- cover ratio for the 2021 paper was 1.48 times, more than the 1.34 times in August.
Investors are driving up Italy’s borrowing costs following a near-default by Greece this year and as Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi struggles to retain enough support to prevent early elections in Europe’s most-indebted nation. Berlusconi’s Cabinet faces a confidence vote in parliament today after a split in his coalition robbed him of an absolute majority in the lower house.
“Should Prime Minister Berlusconi step down, we would expect some spread widening as investors re-assess the political landscape and prospects for fiscal policy, but the move should be moderate and temporary,” Marzo Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group in London wrote in an note to investors.
Risk Premium
The yield premium investors demand to hold 10-year Italian bonds rather than similar-maturity German securities has climbed 51 basis points since Aug. 2 to 173 basis points today and is approaching its euro-era record of 185 basis points set in June.
Italy’s spread was narrower than for the other euro peripheral nations such as Greece at 846 basis points, Spain at 197 basis points, Portugal at 420 basis points and Ireland at 440 basis points,
because Italy has done a better job at containing its deficit.
While Italy held the European Union’s biggest debt at the end of last year, valued at 115.8 percent of gross domestic product, the government kept the deficit in check during the economic crisis, helping limit the impact of Europe’s debt crisis on Italian bonds. Ireland’s deficit of 14.3 percent in 2009 was almost three times Italy’s at 5.3 percent, while Spain’s at 11.2 percent of GDP is more than twice the Italian gap.
The government is publishing new economic forecasts today and will maintain its goals of the cutting the budget shortfall to 5 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2011.
Berlusconi today is seeking parliament’s backing for his agenda for the rest of the legislature that ends in 2013, including making the tax code simpler. While he’ll probably win that support, political gridlock may lead to elections next year, analysts said.
(Bloomberg)
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