Foreign Buyers Increasingly Return to Italian Debt, Cannata Says

Foreign investors are increasingly returning to Italian debt, and some of them are diversifying their holdings, debt agency chief Maria Cannata said.

Purchasers from non-euro area countries such as the U.K. and Scandinavian nations are “important,” in addition to the “very strong” presence of U.S. investors, Cannata said in an interview in her office in Rome yesterday. Asian buyers, whose purchases were “quite limited in terms of maturity until the end of 2013” have started to broaden their horizon in investments and diversify the type of bonds this year, she said. Cannata said Japanese purchases of Italian debt have increased but are still “quite limited.”