Financial News

The German Yield Curve Inverted To Its Highest Level Since 1992 As Recession Fears Increased

Published

on

On Friday, the yield curve for German bonds traded at its steepest inversion level since 1992, which may be an ominous indication for the economy of the country with the largest GDP in Europe.

It came as rates on German 10-year bonds, which are viewed as a benchmark for the currency bloc, climbed on Friday but stayed on course for their third weekly decline in a row despite the fact that they rose. Prices go in the opposite direction of yields.

Late on Thursday, Germany’s yield curve continued to invert, with the difference between the country’s 2-year and 10-year government bond yields falling to -27 basis points (bps) and remaining there on Friday before rebounding to -23 bps. This indicated that the inversion was becoming more severe. According to data provided by Refinitiv, the decline to -27 bps represented the largest disparity since October of 1992.

An inversion is extremely unusual, and many economists believe that it can be used to predict future recessions.

When yields on bonds with longer maturities have a lower rate of return than those on bonds with shorter maturities, this indicates that investors believe the central bank will raise interest rates in the near future before lowering them in the long term in response to slowing growth.

According to Christoph Rieger, head of rates and credit research at Commerzbank, it is a hint that investors anticipate the European Central Bank (ECB) to delay its rate hikes or even decrease them next year. Rieger said this was a sign that investors expect the ECB to do one of these things.

On the other hand, he continued by saying, “I think they’ll continue hiking rates more than the market and many people are forecasting.”

Advertisement

According to Rieger, the German curve has less predictive value than the American curve does since the German curve takes into account the many economies that are present in the euro zone.

The yield on Germany’s 10-year government bond increased by 8 basis points (bps) to 1.924% on Friday, but it was still on course to decline by more than 9 bps for the week.

The yield on the 2-year note, which is the most sensitive to forecasts regarding future ECB interest rate changes, increased by 5 basis points to 2.156%. It was projected to go up during the course of the coming week, which is a hint that investors anticipate additional rate hikes from the ECB in the near future.

Yields on longer-term bonds across the globe have experienced a precipitous decline this month as investors have become more optimistic that the Federal Reserve may be able to slow the pace at which it is increasing interest rates. This would reduce the amount of pressure being exerted on other central banks.

However, in their 2023 prognosis that was released on Thursday, the analysts at Societe Generale stated that they anticipate the yield on the German 10-year bond to surge back higher and reach 2.5% in the first quarter.

According to what they claimed, even though inflation has reached its highest point in the United States, it has not yet begun to decline in Europe. SocGen projected that the European Central Bank (ECB) would increase interest rates to 3% by May 2023, up from the current rate of 1.5%, and maintain that rate until the end of 2024.

On Friday, the yield on Italy’s 10-year government bond increased by 9 basis points to 3.761%, although it was still on course for its fifth consecutive weekly decline.

Advertisement

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Trending

Exit mobile version