Post
Topic
Board Economics
Re: Is deflation truly that bad for an economy?
by
freeyourmind
on 20/04/2015, 17:58:52 UTC

Imagine what happens if Greece defaults on government bonds. What will people around the world think of government bonds in general, when they understand that their pensions are basically government bonds? There could be a violent contraction of credit, thus general price deflation. On the other hand, they could just blame it on one bad government, their own might be okay. Impossible to know.


Given the financial state of Greece, I'd assume that the bond yields would have somewhat adjusted (increased) given the higher level of risk?
I haven't been keeping a very close eye on Greece's situation lately.  Since they don't have their own monetary policy, who is the main lender? ECB?

The increase has been more than a slight adjustment. Greek bond yields have continuously increased since Sep-2014. I wonder how much higher they can go.

Sep-14 : 5.9%
Oct-14: 7.3%
Nov-14: 8.1%
Dec-14: 8.4%
Jan-15: 9.5%
Feb-15: 9.7%
Mar-15: 10.5%


http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/money/long/html/index.en.html

Thanks for the info.  That's pretty crazy for government bonds lol.  So for people already holding bonds, with that type of increase to yields, the price would have already dropped significantly.  New bondholders should understand the risk and be compensated with a higher yield.

Any insight into who the main bondholders are that would suffer from a default?  Greek citizens or foreign investment?