LONDON (Reuters) – Negative yielding government bonds in the euro area fell in December as expectations of interest rate hikes rebound, data released Tuesday by Tradeweb showed.
The overall value of sovereign bonds denominated in euros whose yield was less than zero fell to around 5.100 billion euros at the end of December against 6.2 trillion a month earlier, specifies the market intermediary.
It represented 56% of the region’s total outstanding state loans, which exceeds 9,000 billion euros, against 67% at the end of November.
On the “gilts” market, British government bonds, negative yields at the end of December concerned an outstanding amount of around 717 billion pounds sterling (858 billion euros), or 28% of the total, a proportion which was hardly evolved in a month, says Tradeweb.
Government bond yields have rebounded in recent weeks, with investors betting on a limited economic impact from the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as several central banks hike their key rates or confirm their intention to do so in the coming months .
The proportion of corporate bonds issued in euros with negative yields varied little, at around 26% of the total outstanding amount, which represents some 3.700 billion euros, also show data from Tradeweb.
(Report Dhara Ranasinghe, French version Marc Angrand)
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