Germany issues debt with negative yield Germany issued debt on Monday for the first time with a negative yield, meaning that investors were in effect paying Berlin for the privilege of lending it money. A €4bn auction of six-month bills drew a negative yield of 0.0122 per cent in a sign of Germany's haven status amid the eurozone debt crisis. But demand for the debt was down with the so-called bid-to-cover ratio dropping to 1.8 times from 3.8 times at the previous auction a month ago. German short-term debt has traded at negative yields in the secondary market for some weeks with three-month, six-month and one-year debt all below zero. Bills for six-month debt hit a low of minus 0.3 per cent shortly after Christmas. Investors have flocked to German debt as the two-year sovereign debt crisis has rumbled on, sending benchmark borrowing costs - calculated on 10-year debt - tumbling to their lowest ever level. That has contrasted with the action in other eurozone countries such as Italy and Spain, which are now facing their highest borrowing costs since the 1990s. The German auction marks the start of another busy week of debt sales across Europe. France and Slovakia are also selling bills on Monday, with Austria and the Netherlands selling bonds on Tuesday. Germany will auction five-year bonds on Wednesday, while Thursday sees sales of Spanish bonds and Italian bills. Italy finishes the week with a sale of bonds on Friday. In secondary markets Italian and Spanish yields fell modestly, while Germany's rose. Rome's 10-year yields remained above the critical 7 per cent level, however, falling 3 basis points to 7.1 per cent, while Madrid's dropped 10bp to 5.61 per cent. Germany's 10-year yields rose 2bp to 1.88 per cent.