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The 325 basis points question

The link is to the FT Alphaville blog today. This looks at the range of interest being charged on particular sovereign debt in the Eurozone. Greece is now paying 5.9% interest on its new 7 year debt. Germany pays 3.25% less than that. Italy is only paying 0.45% more than Germany, Spain 0.61% and Portugal 1.14%.

UK Gilts are currently yielding 3.64%. That compares to Germany's 2.65%, Italy's 3.1%, Spain's 3.26% and Portugals 3.79%.

The yield is particularly important when there is a really big and growing deficit as this adds to the payments required.

Obviously sovereign debt in different currencies has two aspects. Firstly, an assumption as to inflation and secondly an assumption as to the risk of default.

However, it is clear that we are not in the greek territory. We have, however, a worse position than Germany, Italy and Spain, but better than Portugal.

Figures from Bloomberg.

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