For the first time, the treasury is issuing a government bond with a term of one year and the Belgian likes it. Immediately after midnight, the first interested party signed up online and that number rose to over 30,000, according to the most recent figures, which were shared around 7 p.m. on Thursday evening. Good for an amount of 1.147 billion euros. The Debt Agency talks about a great success and expects that approximately the same amount will be raised through the banks. An official interim score of the total amount will not follow until Friday, but it is clear that the enthusiasm for the government bond with a net interest of 2.81 percent is great.
For Pascal Paepen, lecturer in banking & stock exchange at KU Leuven and co-founder of Spaarvarkens.be, the success comes as no surprise. Interest rates are quite high and many citizens are frustrated with banks that have refused to raise interest rates in recent years. You can also join from as little as 100 euros, which means that people with less savings suddenly also have opportunities.
“The government is in a bad financial position, but the state will not go bankrupt. In addition, it is a short-term investment and you therefore do not run the risk that interest rates suddenly rise much faster elsewhere. There are many rational reasons for choosing this.”
You can sign up for the state voucher until August 31. It remains to be seen what amount will have been collected at that time. The government bonds issued by then Prime Minister Yves Leterme (CD&V) in 2011 amounted to 5.7 billion euros. But that was a period of extreme economic uncertainty in which the government was also distrusted. “There is a real chance that this government bond will break the record set in 2011.”
According to provisional figures, the first subscribers paid an average of 35,112 euros for their government vouchers on Thursday. A considerable amount that immediately raises the question of whether people with such a financial buffer would not be better off opting for a somewhat more adventurous investment portfolio. Especially since there are more than 300 billion in Belgian savings accounts and inflation remains high.
“People who invest roughly 30,000 in a government bond often already have an investment portfolio,” says Paepen. “We are facing a recession and the share price can always be corrected. Then it is not a bad idea to invest part of your money in a government bond where you do not run any risks.” Anyone who sleeps better because of this certainty is not necessarily doing a bad thing.
With the government bonds, Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) wanted to encourage the banks to raise their net interest on long-term accounts. Axa, Argenta, Deutsche Bank and Beobank have already done so. “But banks are scared because next year customers may get a taste for investing and not come back.”
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2023-08-24 18:13:13
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