Wednesday, June 04, 2025 | 04:26 AM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

Safeguarding 'safe' US govt bonds

Prices of government bonds can fall massively due to interest rate risk. But a fresh policy can change this

Bond yields slide as reports tout progress in global listing of Indian debt
premium

Representative Image

Gurbachan Singh
No major institution in the US has so poor a record of performance over so long a period as the Federal Reserve, yet so high a public reputation.

– Milton Friedman (1988)

The default risk on the US government bonds may be small, but the interest rate risk is huge. The 10-year US Treasury bond yield touched 4.87 per cent in early October 2023, up from a low of about 0.5 per cent in 2020. Relatedly, some 10-year “safe” US government bonds slumped by 46 per cent!

It is interesting that much of the interest rate risk is not due
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper