Slovakia Sells Bonds Cheaper Than Higher-Rated Italy

Slovakia’s funding costs fell below those of higher-rated Italy in a debt sale today that was almost twice oversubscribed, a vote of confidence in the former communist country’s deficit-reduction plans.

The government raised 1.25 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in a reopening of its 2016 bond that was priced to yield 80 basis points more than the mid-swap rate, Ardal, the country’s debt management agency, said in an e-mailed statement. Italy paid a spread of 89 basis points in a Feb. 14 offering of November 2015 notes.