New Italian Debt Offers 0% Interest for First Time
- Italy sells full amount of three-year bonds with 0% coupon
- Average yield at three-year auction drops to record low
Pedestrians wearing protective face masks walk along a street in Rome.
Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Investors snapped up Italy’s first sale of bonds that lack a fixed interest payment, the latest sign of how the desperate hunt for returns has wiped out yields on some of Europe’s riskiest assets.
The country raised 3.75 billion euros ($4.4 billion) from a new three-year, 0% coupon debt at auction on Tuesday. The offering was 1.4 times oversubscribed, signaling slightly slower demand than at the previous sale, and bond prices dipped after the result.