AFME Government Bond Data Report Q2 2024 | AFME
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Data Research
AFME Government Bond Data Report Q2 2024
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18 Oct 2024
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Author Julio Suarez Director
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Report highlights include:

 

 

  • EU Member States and the UK issued EUR 954 bn in bonds and bills throughout 2Q24, which represents an increase of 5.7% (QoQ) compared to 1Q24, and an increase of 7.3% (YoY) compared to 2Q23. 

 

  • Record trading volumes continued in European (EU+UK) government bonds during Q2 2024, according to MarketAxess TraX, with trading increasing 9% (YoY) and decreasing 12% (QoQ). In H1 2024, average daily trading volumes were up 13%, compared to H1 2023, and up 24% compared to H1 2022. Average daily trading volumes in 2024 to date are the highest in the past six years following consistently high trading volumes reported since 2022.

 

  • Outstanding amount of European ESG government bonds reached EUR 502 bn during 2Q24. Volumes were driven by new green bonds issued by Italy (EUR 9.0 bn), Germany (EUR 4.0 bn), Austria (EUR 2.3 bn) and the European Commission (EUR 4.2 bn).  The pace of quarterly growth in the outstanding volume of ESG sovereign bonds slowed to 5.5% during 2Q24, falling from 7.8% growth in 1Q24.

 

  • During 2Q24 there were 4 long-term credit rating downgrades for European countries and 2 upgrades. This follows 1 upgrade and no downgrades in 1Q24, bringing the 2024 year-to-date total to 4 upgrades and 4 downgrades (there was 1 further upgrade and no downgrades in 3Q24). Cyprus continued to increase the quality of its credit profile throughout 2024, with two of the main credit rating agencies upgrading the credit rating of the country in Q2 2024.

 

  • There were 2 entries and 1 exit in European primary dealership from January to October 2024. Changes in primary dealership from January to October 2024 affected sovereign debt markets in Italy, Slovenia, and Sweden. After the most recent changes and as of September 2024, the median number of primary dealers across European countries increased to 18, which represents the highest median since May 2018.

 

  • The average bid-cover ratio (demand/amount allocated) was 2.50 in 2Q24, an increase of 3.3% (QoQ) from 1Q24 and an increase of 14.2% from 2Q23 (YoY).