UPSC Articles
China sells Negative-Yield Bonds
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – International Relations & GS-III – Economy
In news
- Recently, China sold negative-yield debt for the first time, and this saw a high demand from investors across Europe.
- As yields in Europe are even lower, there was a huge demand for the 4-billion-euro bonds issued by China.
Important value additions
- Negative-yield bonds are debt instruments that offer to pay the investor a maturity amount lower than the purchase price of the bond.
- These are generally issued by central banks or governments, and investors pay interest to the borrower to keep their money with them.
- Negative-yield bonds attract investments during times of stress and uncertainty as investors look to protect their capital from significant erosion.
- At a time when the world is battling the Covid-19 pandemic and interest rates in developed markets across Europe are much lower, investors are looking for relatively better-yielding debt instruments to safeguard their interests.
