Italy pays higher interest rate on latest bond sale

Investor continuous to worried about huge debt because Italy has had to pay much more to borrow than a month ago.

Italy had to pay an interest rate of 4.8% to sell 3.5bn euros ($5bn; £3.1bn) of three-year bonds - up 1.1 percentage points from June.

Despite multiple attempts to contain the Greek debt crisis spreading, Italy and Spain have seen their borrowing costs increased in recent weeks.

Italy has the biggest sovereign debt of any European country.

The rate on benchmark 10-year bonds, also sold by Italy on Thursday, was 5.77% - up 0.8 percentage points from June. Italy's debt is second only to Greece in the eurozone - whose huge debts have led to two bailouts.