The ECB’s interventions in government bond markets (a guarantee given since the summer of 2012 that there would be no more solvency crises with respect to government bonds, quantitative easing with purchases of government bonds very likely from early 2015) have mutualised sovereign risk between the government bonds of euro-zone countries. We can therefore consider that these bonds have become Eurobonds. Investors understand this: even bad news regarding certain countries (on economies or sovereign ratings) no longer influence interest rates, because risks are mutualised between countries; long-term interest rates on eurozone government bonds are converging. Some core euro-zone countries may of course reject this development, which eliminates their relative advantage in terms of sovereign risk and financing costs.
