Executive Summary
Interest rates in the developed economies, both short-term and long-term, have been remarkably low in the past few years. While the interest rates for 10-year US government bond - the widely used benchmark, stands at 2%; interest rates for other countries especially Germany and Japan are just above zero. Switzerland recently issued its 10-yr sovereign bond at a negative rate which incidentally was oversubscribed! So did Germany with its five-year debt . Though low yields (slightly above 0%) have been persistent for the past few years, the possibility of negative yields weren't conceived by investors as it doesn't make sense from a risk perspective.
