LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - The annual cost to Germany for jointly issuing debt with other euro zone states should amount to a maximum of around 0.36% of economic output, research by U.S. bank Jefferies showed on Wednesday, in one of the first cost estimates of the hotly disputed project.

The debate about joint debt issuance has pitted Germany and Netherlands against poorer southern European states, with several countries calling for the measure to help them tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Euro zone finance ministers failed in all-night talks on Tuesday to agree support for badly hit countries. Talks stumbled on topics including how to finance a recovery fund because that discussion involved the joint bond issue -- a red line for Germany, Netherlands and some others.

Economists at Jefferies said they had calculated that joint issuance would not cost any euro zone country more than 0.5% of GDP per year. While Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, would have to stump up 12 billion euros ($13 billion) per year on top of current debt servicing costs, the cost to the Netherlands would be 1.4 billion euros, or 0.18% of GDP.

The actual cost of joint debt issuance for these countries would actually be lower, as Jefferies’ figures assume the entire level of euro zone debt would be mutually issued, rather than the roughly 500 billion euros that is currently being discussed.

However, Germany and Netherlands are unlikely to be swayed, believing that so called ‘coronabonds’ are the thin end of the wedge that will lead in the longer-term to wealthier countries underwriting the debt of southern peers.

Senior European economist Marchel Alexandrovich called the costs to contributing countries “not much more than a rounding error”. But he also acknowledged that “costs involved with such a move are clearly not what is holding some countries back from giving their support.”

As for the beneficiaries of a joint bond, Jefferies said Italy would save nearly 15 billion euros, or 0.84% of GDP annually. Portugal would enjoy annual savings of 1.5 billion euros, or 0.74% of GDP.

The figures make no assumptions about what happens to future borrowing costs for individual economies.