France sells 8.6 bln euros of bills, yields slip
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — The French government, in its first test of the debt market since it was stripped of its triple-A rating by Standard & Poor’s, sold 8.59 billion euros (.9 billion) of Treasury bills on Monday, with borrowing costs declining from levels seen a week ago. France’s public debt agency said it sold 4.503 billion euros of 12-week bills at an average rate of 0.165%, down from 0.167% in a sale of 13-week bills last Monday. A sale of 2.192 billion euros of 25-week bills yielded 0.281% versus 0.286% last week, while a sale of 51-week bills produced a yield of 0.406%, down from 0.454%. S&P on Friday lowered France’s rating one notch to double-A plus and cut ratings for eight other euro-zone countries.
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