Japan's surprise decision to cut interest rates has reverberated across global markets, pushing the universe of government bonds that trade at negative yields to a record $5.5tn, writes Elaine Moore.
Fears for economic deterioration and increasingly abnormal policies adopted by global central banks to ward off the threat of deflation have resulted in a bizarre scenario in which investors pay governments to hold their money.
Figures from JPMorgan show that negative rates, once considered only theoretically possible, now account for one quarter of the index for government bonds.