Portuguese borrowing costs hit record Portugal's borrowing costs leapt to fresh euro-era highs on Wednesday amid growing worries that Lisbon could eventually default on its debt commitments. Portuguese yields, which move inversely to prices, hit the highs for three, five and 10-year bonds, while the cost of buying insure against default, as measured by credit default swaps, rose to a record too. One banker said: "Greece will default. The market is convinced of that. But now Portugal is increasingly being considered as likely to follow. There is not enough time for the country to bring its economy round and bring government bond yields back to sustainable levels. Portuguese three-year bond yields leapt to 19.43 per cent, the highest on the country's yield curve because expectations of a default over this time are considered high by many investors and bankers. The country's benchmark 10-year bonds jumped to 15.10 per cent, while five year bonds rose to 18.87 per cent. Portuguese credit default swaps rose to 1,326 basis points, or a theoretical cost of $1.32m to insure $10m of bonds annually over five years. At the same time, many other eurozone bond markets were steady, including that of Greece, helped by growing hopes that policymakers are taking steps to resolve the region's debt crisis. The European Central Bank's three-year longer-term refinancing operation, tapped by eurozone banks, has helped lift confidence in the financial system. Greece is hoping to strike a bond swap deal with private sector creditors to avoid a disorderly default on its debts, although an agreement is far from assured. A Greek government spokesman said on Wednesday that it hoped to complete talks on the deal this week and that Charles Dallara of the Institute of International Finance, who negotiates on behalf of the private bondholders, would return to Athens on Thursday to continue negotiations, Reuters reported.