Italy begins crisis talks with EU
15:52, 3 August 2011
ROME. August 3. KAZINFORM Italian finance minister Giulio Tremonti has begun crisis talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 17 eurozone countries; Kazinform refers to BBC.
The talks come as yields on Italian bonds have reached euro-era record levels.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is due to address parliament on the economy later on Wednesday.
Spain's cost of borrowing has also been rising.
In early trading on Wednesday, the yield on Italian 10-year bonds rose 0.19 percentage points to 6.21%, while the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds was at 6.34%, just below Tuesday's record of 6.45%.
A cost of borrowing above 6% is considered unsustainable by many economists.
"The upward march in Spanish and Italian bond yields is evidence of the relentlessness of the sovereign debt crisis," said Jane Foley, an analyst at Rabobank International.