After a stressful year and difficulties in raising capital, borrowers are attracting a lot of investor interest.<\/p>\n
In the first 18 days of the year, businesses and governments around the world have already issued almost \u20ac600 billion of bonds. That’s the most active start to a year in bond markets in history, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
After a downward spiral last year not only for equities but also for debt securities, businesses and governments faced worsening borrowing conditions, but at the start of this year issuers are seeing a sudden surge in enthusiasm from investors willing to lend.<\/p>\n
The latter is driven by yields on debt markets not seen for 15 years and by investors’ expectations of a slowdown in inflation and, consequently, of central banks cutting interest rates, possibly as early as the end of this year. This is pushing investors to lock in elevated yields.<\/p>\n