China buys 1 bn euros of Portuguese debt: report

(LISBON) - China bought one billion euros' ($1.3 billion) worth of Portuguese debt in a private placement last week at above the market rate of interest, newspaper Jornal de Negocios reported on Thursday.

"The Portuguese state is going to pay a rate of 4.74 percent on an 18-month issue of 1 billion euros, which is above the market rate," the newspaper said.

The rate of Portuguese two-year debt rose to 3.970 percent at the close of trading on Wednesday.

Portugal raised 1.25 billion euros in its first long-term issue of the year, with suspected large-scale debt preparfatory purchasing on the secondary market by the European Central Bank and expressions of support for eurozone debt from China and Japan helping to calm markets.