German and French debt servicing costs higher than Spain's in 2011; Italy's costs more than half level in 1990-2000
The yield on the Spanish 10-year bond closed at 6.8% on Tuesday compared with 1.32% for the equivalent German bund. Since 2010, Greece has been bailed out twice and Ireland and Portugal also needed bailouts to stay afloat with bond yields rates above 6% now seen to be in the danger zone while rates above 7%, hitting records since the launch of the euro in 1999 are in the panic zone. Nevertheless, as a ratio of GDP, Germany and France had higher debt servicing levels than Spain in 2011 and in the period 1990-2000, Italy's debt servicing ratio was more than twice the level it was in 2011.
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