Mutual funds investors abandoned Europe in droves last week, with withdrawals from continental equity funds hitting the highest level since March, and outflows from bond funds nearing $17bn over the year to date, as fears over the continent's sovereign debt crisis hit a new high.

As Italy's cost of borrowing soared towards 7% yesterday - a similar level to that which forced Greece and Ireland to seek European bailouts - the data provider EPFR Global released figures that underlined how seriously investors are taking the debt crisis.