Demand for Italian Retail Bonds Sags in Sign of Buyer Fatigue

  • Households bid €6.6 billion in two days, less than average
  • Smaller take-up is near-term risk for Italian debt, says Citi

Giorgia Meloni

Photographer: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Italians are buying fewer bonds targeted at individual savers, raising questions over the extent to which the government can rely on this funding source in future.

Households placed orders of around €6.6 billion ($7.1 billion) for so-called BTP Valore bonds in the first two days of a sale that ends Friday, and demand on the third day has so far amounted to about €600 million. That compares with an average of €10.3 billion in the first couple of days of the previous three offerings, which raised about €18 billion each.