German five-year bunds trade at negative yields for first time ever

German five-year government debt sold at a negative yield for the first time in history on Wednesday as borrowing costs and inflation in the eurozone continue to fall.

The German Finance Agency sold €3.3bn (£2.4bn) worth of government bonds maturing in April 2020 at an average negative yield of 0.08%. A similar deal was executed at a yield of 0.05% back in January, according to the Wall Street Journal. Ten-year bunds are trading as low as 0.32%. This means that for the first time in history investors must pay the German government to lend it money for a five year period. Germany's 10-year bond yields recently fell below their Japanese equivalents, also a historic first. The fall in yields reflects a general downward trend across the region, follo...