Slight rise in the interest level
| Yield on ten-year German bunds (%) | 2018 | 2017 | Change |
Average yield | +0.46 | +0.38 | +0.08 |
Highest yield | +0.76 | +0.64 | +0.12 |
Lowest yield | +0.23 | +0.15 | +0.08 |
Year-end yield | +0.25 | +0.24 | +0.01 |
Source: Thomson Reuters
In the year under review, the yield from the ten-year German Federal bonds (bunds) increased slightly. Decisions by central banks and political developments, such as the challenges of forming a government in Italy or ongoing differences in international trading policy, had a substantial impact on the bond market. The yield gap between American and German government bonds significantly expanded over the course of the year. At 2.7 percentage points, the interest rate gap reached a 30-year high. The context of this development is the differing directions of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the US Federal Reserve (Fed), the latter of which raised its base interest rate several times over the course of the year up to 2.5%. The ECB’s ongoing bond-purchase program, which had been running since March 2015, ended in December 2018 as scheduled.