Italy three-year debt cost at 2013 high after downgrade

MILAN: Italy's three-year borrowing costs rose to their highest since December on Wednesday after Fitch cut its credit rating last week, but the country also managed to sell the top planned amount of a new 15-year bond.

The Treasury paid a yield of 2.48 percent to sell 3.3 billion euros $4.3 billion (2.8 billion pounds) of three-year bonds, a big jump from 2.30 percent at a similar sale one month ago.