Spain raises $5 billion as it mulls over financial help

MADRID Spain easily raised roughly $5 billion as the government mulls whether to tap a financial facility that has been partly designed to ease the financial pressure on the country.

The Treasury sold $2.2 billion in 3-year bonds on Thursday at an average interest rate of 3.66 percent, unchanged from the last such auction earlier this month.

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It sold $827 million in 5-year bonds at 4.52 percent, less than the 4.68 percent rate seen before.

It also raised $1.9 billion from the sale of bonds maturing in 2021 at a rate of 5.55 percent.

The sale exceeded the Treasury's targeted maximum of $4.5 billion and demand averaged twice the amount offered.

The government of recession-wracked Spain says it needs to know the conditions to any application for international help.