Italy’s Borrowing Costs Rise to Euro-Era Record at Bond Auction

Italy’s borrowing costs rose to a euro-era record at a sale of three-year bonds, driving yields higher on concern that efforts to contain the sovereign crisis won’t be enough to safeguard the region’s third-largest economy.

The Rome-based Treasury sold 3.08 billion euros ($4.36 billion) of 2014 bonds to yield 4.93 percent, the highest since November 2000, and up from 4.68 percent on Sept. 29. Italy’s bonds extended declines after the sale, while German bunds pared most of their earlier losses.