Global bond yields hit multi-year highs as US debt tops 40 trillion and Fed weighs inflation fight

Global bond yields surged to multi-year highs on Friday as investors demanded higher returns amid mounting concerns over soaring public debt and inflation pressures.
In the U.S., 30-year Treasury yields reached 5.3%, the highest since 2007, while 10-year yields climbed to levels last seen in early 2025, according to reports . The U.S. national debt surpassed $40 trillion this week, prompting Finance Minister Scott Bessent to replace long-term bonds with shorter-term, lower-yield debt to ease financing costs. However, the Federal Reserve faces a dilemma: raising interest rates to combat inflation—fueled in part by the Iran war—would increase the cost of servicing short-term debt, undermining Bessent’s strategy .
Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is expected to address these tensions in a speech at Jackson Hole on Friday. Analysts, including TS Lombard’s U.S. chief economist Steven Blitz, suggest Warsh may prioritize growth and higher inflation over rate hikes to avoid exacerbating the fiscal strain . The U.S. government has also announced plans to buy back long-term bonds to suppress yields, though this would require further short-term borrowing .
The bond sell-off extended beyond the U.S. French 30-year bond yields hit their highest levels since 2008, while German 10-year yields rose to their highest since 2011 . In Japan, 10-year yields reached levels not seen in three decades. Holger Bonin, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, warned that rising debt and deficits become problematic when markets lose confidence in fiscal discipline, particularly if structural issues like unsustainable pension systems remain unaddressed .
Investors have responded by shifting into gold and Bitcoin, both of which hit three-month highs this week, as hedge fund manager Ray Dalio advised underweighting government bonds in favor of hard assets . Japan’s large-scale sales of U.S. Treasuries to support the yen have added further pressure to bond markets.
Global debt has continued to grow faster than economic output, with projections indicating worldwide government debt could exceed 100% of GDP by 2029 . Germany, which had followed fiscal consolidation advice from the IMF and think tanks, now faces skepticism over its debt policies from both markets and economists.
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