In a year where the unexpected became the norm, one of the few constants was the ECB’s presence in the eurozone sovereign bond market — you can see the monthly pace of Mario Draghi’s purchases. Elsewhere, the shock election of Donald Trump as US president and the Brexit vote took its toll on government bond yields and sterling’s level against the dollar.
Amid tight budgetary conditions, including persistent inflation, volatile markets and geopolitical tensions, sovereign issuers in the EU face continuous pressure to fulfil borrowing requirements. Simultaneously, these same issuers are having to confront different challenges that range from the growing impact of hedge funds in their order books, and whether this is a good or a bad thing, how to convince new investors that their home currency, the euro, is an alternative to the dollar and how aligned EU capital markets should become and what form this should take. GlobalCapital assembled sovereign debt issuers to discuss borrowing requirements and how they are being met, what the diversification of their investor bases means for the products they offer and the benefits of harmonisation and simpler regulation in the EU.