A USD 1 trillion glut of bonds is dwarfing central-bank demand

The world’s major central banks aren’t purchasing debt fast enough, leaving almost USD 1 trillion of new sovereign bonds looking for buyers in the months ahead.
Photo: DANIEL SLIM/AFP / AFP
Photo: DANIEL SLIM/AFP / AFP
By Stephen Spratt, Liz Capo McCormick and James Hirai / BLOOMBERG

The flood of fresh debt, sold by governments to fund pandemic-rescue packages, threatens to dwarf central-bank buying and swamp markets in the U.K., Canada and Australia, according to Bloomberg calculations. Policy-maker purchases will also lag issuance in the U.S. and Japan, where a continuing tilt toward buying short-maturity debt would risk allowing yields on longer-dated bonds to rise unchecked, hurting pension funds and life insurers that rely on these markets.

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