Pound benefits as euro dumped amid fears for banks Sterling has risen 2.9pc against nine peers in the past six months, making it the third-best performer after the Japanese yen and the US dollar, according to Bloomberg. France successfully raised €7.96bn of long-term debt in a bond auction but was forced to pay a higher price than last month. Demand for the bonds was lacklustre compared to a similar auction in November. The spectre of default from Hungary added to the jitters. The government was forced to cut the size of a short-term bond auction from 45bn florints (£11.7bn) to 35bn florints and pay a cripplingly high rate of 9.96pc. Tamas Fellegi, the minister in charge of negotiating new IMF financing, said he was "entirely clear about the seriousness of the situation." Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister, is due to meet Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris this afternoon to start the run-up to the next European leaders summit on January 30th. Meanwhile the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) placed a €3bn three-year bond, the proceeds of which will be disbursed to Ireland and Portugal.