In a sign of the times, Reuters is reporting that the German government made billions of euros from debt issuance this year thanks to negative interest rates on its securities, according to a letter, seen by Reuters, from Finance Ministry State Secretary Florian Toncar to a left-wing lawmaker.
The average yield on federal government securities issued this year was minus 0.56%, Toncar wrote. Nevertheless, auctions were 1.7 times oversubscribed.
"Despite negative yields, German bonds are selling like hot cakes," said Goerke, a German lawmaker
It's never been a better time for Govts to issue debt, and quite frankly, I don't know why many don't issue more when they can do so at negative rates.
