(Reuters) – Financial market pressure on Italyintensified on Tuesday, sucking Europe’s second biggest debtor nation deeper into the euro area danger zone and prompting Italian authorities to call emergency talks.
Italian bond yields hit their highest level in the euro’s 11-year lifetime, ominously reaching the same level as Spain’s in a sign that Rome is overtaking Madrid as the main focus of investors’ concern about debt sustainability.
Italy’s stock index fell to its lowest in more than 27 months, dragged down by banks with a heavy exposure to Italian debt. European shares hit a 9-month low amid worries that slowing economic growth will make it even harder to overcome the euro zone’s debt troubles.
“The fear of the market is that the world is going into recession again… and in the euro zone the peripheral markets are the ones that will suffer most,” said Alessandro Giansanti, strategist at ING in Amsterdam.
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