Greece raises funds to avoid default Greece avoided an early default on Tuesday after raising sufficient funds in a treasury bill action to make a €5bn debt repayment due later this week. Athens successfully sold €4.06bn in one-month and three-month bills, which together with funds expected to be raised from non-competitive bids in coming days, should allow it to redeem bills coming due on Friday. Fears about Greece's public finances have escalated as a result of the deadlock between international lenders over how to reduce its overall debt - which resulted in a rare public spat late on Monday between the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Tuesday's treasury bill action was also made difficult by the increasing funding pressures facing Greek banks. Limits imposed by the European Central Bank - as part of its efforts to put pressure on eurozone politicians to reach a deal on Greece's finances - threatened to restrict the amounts they could bid. Greek banks are reliant on "emergency liquidity assistance" provided by the country's central bank but subject to approval by ECB's governing council. Despite Greece's successful fundraising, eurozone jitters escalated on Tuesday. Spanish 10-year bond yields were trading at 5.94 per cent by mid-morning in London, the highest since late September. The rise reflected investors" fears that Madrid will seek to avoid agreeing an economic reform programme with the EU and IMF - a pre-condition for ECB intervention in its bond markets set by Mario Draghi, the central bank's president. Spanish bond yields remain significantly lower than the peaks seen earlier this year - before Mr Draghi pledged to do "whatever it takes" to preserve the eurozone's integrity. Athens sold €2.76bn of one-month treasury bills priced to yield 3.95 per cent and €1.3bn of three month paper at 4.2 per cent. The three month auction's bid-to-cover ratio was 1.66, down from 1.90 in a similar sale on October 16.