IN BRIEF (Page 14)

Borrowing costs jump

Spanish borrowing costs rose at a sale of three-year notes on concern that the government will struggle to narrow its budget deficit. The government sold 2.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of the securities to yield 2.63 percent yesterday, compared with 2.14 percent the last time the notes were issued on Dec 3. The sale attracted 4.6 times as many bids as securities on offer, up from 1.72 at the last sale.

"The focus is shifting toward Spain and Portugal where the deficit-reduction plans have been far less ambitious than Greece," said Kornelius Purps, a fixed-income strategist in Munich at UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking. Spanish government bonds fell, pushing the yield on the two-year note up 8 basis points to 2.24 percent as of 10:42 am in Madrid.