Is eurozone finally entering a period of sustainable economic expansion?

The first eight months of 2015 have been relatively weak for the global high yield market. Much of this weakness has stemmed from the US, where exposure to lower commodity prices has put pressure on issuers, in particular those in the basic materials sector.

While energy sector exposure in Europe is more limited, this weakness has transposed into the European high yield market. As a result of this, bond prices are lower year to date and credit spreads have reached their widest levels since mid-2013.   The European Central Bank (ECB) is in the early stages of its quantitative easing programme and the portfolio rebalancing effect is just one of the ways this policy may be transmitted into the real economy. This encourages investors to move capital into riskier and higher yielding assets as the yield on risk free assets is artificially supre...