Europe’s Worst Bond Market Doesn’t Look Like It’s Getting Better

  • Portuguese-Greek spread narrowed to four percentage points
  • Unlike Greece, Portugal qualifies for ECB’s bond purchase plan
Source: Getty Images
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Just when Portugal thought things couldn’t look any worse for its bond market, they did.

After a rally in Greek debt in recent weeks, the country is the only part of the euro region to lose money for investors this year. Now the difference between their 10-year borrowing costs has narrowed to the least since the European Central Bank unveiled its bond-purchase plan in January 2015. What makes it more notable is that Greece doesn’t qualify for the quantitative easing program, which has propped up markets. Portugal does.