This report provides a comprehensive data source with updated statistics of the Government bond primary and secondary markets in Europe (EU28).

Some highlights include:

• EU government bond trading volume fell 17.6% year-on-year, with France, Sweden and Finland showing the largest reductions. Although there was a quarterly increase in government bond trading from Q4 2017, which was part driven by seasonal factors, this is the lowest trading volume for a first quarter since 2013.
   
• French government bonds auctions have shown a ‘green yield premium’, allowing the French government to issue 21 and 22 year green OATs at yields similar to 16 year non-green OATs.
   
• Of the five countries that saw the largest increases in weighted average maturities of outstanding government bonds in the last quarter, four were CEE countries. Sweden experienced the largest increase of over 8%; however, it is still the only country in Northern and Western Europe with a weighted average years-to-maturity of less than 5 years.
   
• The continuous convergence of CDS spreads in the EU from Q1 2017 to Q1 2018, ended in Q2 2018 as the Italian election caused credit risk to increase in Spain, Portugal and Italy, and to cease the decline in Greece.