That has already led to a remarkable rally in sovereign-bond markets, especially in the troubled countries of southern Europe. In Portugal, for example, ten-year bond yields fell by 3.5 percentage points in the course of 2014, from 6.2% to 2.7%. (The exception is Greece, where fears of a political crisis, and even of a possible exit from the euro zone after the election on January 25th, have recently driven yields up again.) As a result the effect of implementing QE will be limited.