The German government issued 30-year government bonds with a zero coupon for the first time ever on August 21.

It offered €2 billion ($2.21 billion) maturing on August 15, 2050 at –0.12%. This largely reflected what investors are accepting in the secondary market, where 10-year bunds yielded –0.15% in earlier trading today (August 22). However, the auction was undersubscribed as investors only bought €869 million.

This may reflect the limited toolkit the European Central Bank (ECB) has at its