Germany’s benchmark 10-year government borrowing costs are on track to fall below zero for the first time, raising fresh concerns over the damaging side effects of the European Central Bank’s landmark bond-buying programme.
Yields on Bunds dropped to just 0.16 per cent on Friday, compared with 0.54 per cent at the start of the year, and as the ECB enters its second month of quantitative easing, many analysts think it could be only a matter of time before German 10-year yields drop below zero.
Switzerland — a much smaller market that is not part of the eurozone — last week became the first government in history to sell benchmark 10-year debt at negative interest rates, raising worries about distortions in global financial markets.