And the ECB may have brought Europe one step closer to debt mutualisation, prompting a narrowing of the spread between the borrowing costs of Germany and the periphery.

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Thus, a narrowing of the spread is justified.

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The euro zone's temperature chart the spread of bond yields over German bunds is gradually narrowing.

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In the year to date, however, narrowing spread levels have helped high-yield bond returns narrowly exceed those of loans (see below).

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