The latest report from the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), looking at European government bond markets, found that €1 trillion of bonds and bills were issued across the European Union – including European Commission issuance – and the United Kingdom (UK) in the second quarter of 2024, a 7.3% increase of quarterly issuance volumes year-on-year (YoY).
This was a 5.7% drop in volume relative to the first quarter of the year.
Of that debt, bonds and bills issued exclusive by states (EU members and the UK) counted for €954 billion during Q2, an increase of 7.4% YoY and a quarterly decrease of 5.7%.
That means the EU Commission issued an additional €38 billion in EU-bonds and €15 billion in EU-bills during Q2 2024, making up 5.3% of net European sovereign issuance, up from 4.6% in Q1 2024, and from 4.2% in Q4 2023.
While the nominal gross issuance of Eurozone countries remained pretty much in line with the amount issued in Q2 2023, seeing a marginal decrease in Q2 2024 of 0.6% YoY, UK bills gross issuance saw a far larger increase of 39.4% YoY while UK bonds increased by 18.3% for the same period YoY.
©Markets Media Europe 2024
