Yields Driven Under 1% on Almost Half World’s Government Bonds

Forty-five percent of all government bonds yield less than 1 percent, Bank of America Corp. said, as central bankers in Japan, Europe and the U.K. decide on how to support their economies.

Speculation that the European Central Bank would start buying debt in the year ahead had pushed the yield spread between U.S. 10-year Treasuries and German bunds toward a 15-year high and German 10-year yields to a record low of 0.866 percent last week. The ECB unexpectedly cut interest rates and pledged to buy asset-backed debt at today’s policy meeting to spur economic growth and stave off the threat of deflation.