Yield on ten-year government bonds of selected countries 2026

Yield on ten-year government bonds of selected countries worldwide as of June 2026

Ten-year government bond yields vary enormously across countries, from about 0.3 percent in Switzerland to 4.5 percent in the United States and more than 13 percent in Brazil, as of June 2026. The yield is the return investors earn for lending to a government for ten years. A government bond yield is the effective interest rate a country pays to borrow for ten years, and because it reflects inflation, credit risk and central bank policy all at once, it is one of the single most closely watched numbers in global finance. The ten-year maturity is the global standard for comparing government borrowing costs, long enough to capture the market view of an economy over a full cycle but short enough to remain highly liquid and widely traded across every major market.

Safe-haven economies like Switzerland, Japan and China have the lowest yields, while high-inflation emerging markets like Brazil and Turkey have the highest. The snapshot sits alongside our debt deals by currency overview and our short-term interest rates worldwide coverage.

From Switzerland to Australia: among advanced economies, ten-year yields in June 2026 ranged from 0.32 percent in Switzerland and 2.62 percent in Japan up to 4.45 percent in the US, 4.75 in the UK and 4.78 in Australia.

Yields reflect each country inflation, central bank policy, debt levels and perceived risk, which is why they differ so widely, themes our central banks and federal funds rate overviews explore.

A note on the data. The figures are snapshot yields on ten-year government bonds around mid-June 2026, from Financial Times, FRED and market data, in percent. Yields change daily. Yields move constantly as bonds are traded, so any snapshot captures only a single moment, but the broad ranking of countries, from the safe havens to the high-inflation emerging markets, tends to be stable over months and even years. All yields shown are snapshot market rates around mid-June 2026, drawn from Financial Times and other market data, and while the precise figures will have moved since, the broad picture of a deeply divided global bond market remains accurate. For all the daily movement, the deep structure of the yield map, with disciplined low-inflation economies at the bottom and high-inflation ones at the top, has proved remarkably durable, making it a reliable guide to relative creditworthiness across the world.

Ten-Year Bond Yields by Country

The table lists ten-year government bond yields for selected countries as of June 2026. It shows the vast gap between the safe havens near or below 1 percent and the high-inflation emerging markets in double digits. Reading down the yield column shows the full sweep of global borrowing costs, from the Swiss government, which borrows almost for free, to Turkey, which pays more than 25 times as much, a range that captures the extremes of the modern bond market. Because yields are market prices that change every day, the table is best read as a snapshot of the relative cost of borrowing across countries rather than as a set of fixed figures, with the ranking far more stable than the precise numbers.

Which Countries Have the Highest Bond Yields?

Emerging markets have by far the highest ten-year yields. Turkey tops the list at about 27 percent, followed by Brazil at 13.5 percent and South Africa at 10 percent, all driven by high inflation and greater perceived risk than advanced economies. The gulf between the highest and lowest yields is extraordinary, spanning more than 26 percentage points, and it reflects the vast differences in inflation, monetary credibility and default risk between the world most and least stable economies. Turkey extraordinary yield of around 27 percent reflects years of very high inflation and a loss of investor confidence in its monetary policy, forcing the government to offer enormous returns to persuade anyone to hold its long-term debt.

These double-digit yields compensate investors for inflation and the risk of currency depreciation or default, which is why they sit so far above the yields of rich countries, a gap our global stock markets by country coverage sets in context.

Double-digit borrowing costs: emerging markets pay far more, with Turkey near 27 percent, Brazil 13.5 percent and South Africa 10 percent, though China stands out at just 1.8 percent.

Not all emerging markets are alike, with China standing out at just 1.8 percent, lower than most advanced economies, reflecting its low inflation, heavy state control of the bond market and abundant domestic savings. The case of China is a reminder that low yields do not always signal a safe haven in the Western sense, since its bond market is heavily managed by the state and dominated by domestic investors, insulating it from the forces that drive yields elsewhere. Taken together, the emerging-market yields show that the label covers a huge range, from the tightly managed and low-yielding Chinese market to the high-inflation, high-yield markets of Latin America and Turkey, with little in common between them.

Bond Yields by Country Group

Grouping countries by type shows the pattern clearly. Safe-haven bonds yield about 1.5 percent on average, eurozone bonds about 3.3 percent, and the English-speaking advanced economies about 4.3 percent, while Latin American yields average above 11 percent. Sorting countries into groups reveals the underlying logic of the yield map, showing that geography matters far less than economic fundamentals, since it is inflation and credibility, not location, that ultimately determine how much a government must pay to borrow. The safe-haven group of Switzerland and Japan yields barely a fifth of what the Anglosphere economies pay, a gap that reflects decades of low inflation and, in Japan case, a central bank that kept rates near zero for far longer than any other.

The spread between groups reflects their very different inflation and risk profiles, from the price stability of Switzerland and Japan to the volatility of Latin America, a divergence our developed and emerging share price index coverage captures.

Fundamentals, not geography: safe-haven bonds average about 1.5 percent, eurozone bonds 3.3 percent, the English-speaking economies 4.3 percent, and Latin America above 11 percent.

The English-speaking economies, including the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, cluster at the high end of the advanced world, reflecting their larger deficits and, in some cases, higher inflation than continental Europe or Japan. The clustering of the English-speaking economies at the top of the advanced world reflects a shared pattern of larger fiscal deficits and, in some cases, more persistent inflation than in continental Europe or in the traditionally frugal economies of northern Europe. The regional averages, while useful for showing the broad pattern, inevitably mask wide variation within each group, and they should be read as illustrating the general hierarchy of borrowing costs rather than as precise measures of any single economy.

How Are Yields Distributed?

Of the selected countries, five have yields below 3 percent, nine fall between 3 and 5 percent, three sit between 5 and 10 percent, and three exceed 10 percent. Most advanced economies cluster in the 3 to 5 percent band. The distribution of yields is heavily weighted toward the middle of the range, with most advanced economies bunched between 3 and 5 percent, while the extremes at either end are occupied by a small number of unusually stable or unusually troubled economies. The three countries with yields above 10 percent, South Africa, Brazil and Turkey, illustrate how quickly borrowing costs can escalate once inflation and political risk take hold, pushing yields into territory unthinkable for an advanced economy.

The clustering of advanced economies between 3 and 5 percent reflects a common backdrop of moderate inflation and central bank rates that have come down from their peaks, a convergence our global financial markets coverage frames.

Most in the middle: of the selected countries, five yield below 3 percent, nine between 3 and 5 percent, three between 5 and 10 percent, and three above 10 percent.

The tails of the distribution, the near-zero yielders and the double-digit outliers, are where the real stories lie, from the price stability that anchors Swiss and Japanese yields to the inflation that lifts Brazilian and Turkish ones. The heavy concentration of advanced economies in the 3 to 5 percent band is itself a recent development, since only a few years ago many of these same countries had yields close to zero, a shift that has transformed the economics of government borrowing. The shape of the distribution, bunched in the middle with thin tails at either extreme, is itself informative, showing that most large economies now operate within a fairly narrow band of moderate yields once the outliers are set aside.

How Yields Compare to the US

Compared with the US ten-year Treasury at 4.45 percent, most advanced economies yield less. Switzerland yields more than 4 points below the US, Germany about 1.5 points below, while the UK and Australia yield slightly more. Measuring every yield against the US ten-year Treasury, the world benchmark, offers a clean way to see which governments borrow more cheaply than the United States and which pay a premium, a comparison that cuts through the noise of absolute levels. That the United States, despite being the world premier safe haven, yields more than Germany, Japan and Switzerland reflects its large fiscal deficits and resilient economy, which together keep US yields elevated relative to other rich countries.

The US sits at the higher end of the advanced world, reflecting its large deficits and resilient economy, but well below emerging markets, a middle position our federal funds rate level coverage helps explain.

Above and below the US: Switzerland yields more than 4 points below the US ten-year, Germany about 1.5 below, while the UK and Australia yield slightly more and Brazil about 9 points more.

Emerging markets yield far more than the US, with India about 2 points higher and Brazil about 9 points higher, reflecting the extra return investors demand for higher inflation and greater risk in those economies. The size of the emerging-market premium over US Treasuries is a direct measure of the extra risk investors perceive, and it can widen sharply during periods of global stress, when capital flees riskier markets for the safety of the dollar.

Why Are Long Yields Above Central Bank Rates?

Ten-year yields sit above central bank policy rates in most countries, a gap known as the term premium. In the US the ten-year yields about 4.45 percent against a policy rate near 3.6 percent, a premium of nearly a point for lending long. The relationship between long yields and central bank rates is one of the most important in finance, because the gap between them, the term premium, reveals how much extra investors demand to lock their money up for a decade rather than lending short. In most countries the ten-year yield sits comfortably above the policy rate, but the size of the gap varies, and in some cases an inverted relationship, where long yields fall below short rates, has historically been a warning sign of coming recession.

The term premium compensates investors for the risk that inflation or rates could rise over the life of the bond, and it varies by country, a pricing our primary credit rate coverage connects to the rate cycle.

The term premium: ten-year yields sit above central bank rates in most countries, with the US ten-year at 4.45 percent against a policy rate near 3.6 percent, a premium of nearly a point.

In Japan and Switzerland, where policy rates are near zero, ten-year yields are also very low but still positive, a marked change from the negative yields of a few years ago, when investors paid to hold these bonds. The transition from negative to positive yields in Japan and Switzerland has been one of the quieter but more consequential shifts in global markets, marking the slow normalisation of monetary policy in the last bastions of ultra-low rates.

Bond Yields Across the Eurozone

Within the eurozone, ten-year yields range from 2.92 percent in Germany, the benchmark, up to 3.66 percent in France. Germany yields the least because it is seen as the safest euro-area borrower, with the Netherlands and Ireland close behind. The eurozone offers a natural experiment in bond pricing, since its members share a currency and a central bank yet pay very different yields, a spread that reflects the market judgment of each government creditworthiness rather than differences in monetary policy. Germany role as the eurozone benchmark makes its yield the reference point for the whole bloc, with the extra yield that other members pay, known as the spread over Bunds, serving as a real-time gauge of investor confidence in each government.

The spread between German and other eurozone yields reflects perceived credit risk, with more indebted members like Italy, Greece and France paying more to borrow, a hierarchy our leading financial centres coverage frames.

Germany cheapest: within the eurozone, ten-year yields range from 2.92 percent in Germany, the benchmark, up to 3.66 percent in France, with Italy and Greece close behind.

France yielding more than Italy in June 2026 is a notable shift, reflecting French political and fiscal uncertainty, and a reminder that the old ranking of eurozone borrowers can change as investor perceptions evolve. The unusual sight of France paying more to borrow than Italy underscores how quickly market perceptions can change, driven in this case by concerns over French politics and public finances rather than by any formal change in credit ratings. The narrow spreads among core eurozone members, and the wider ones for the periphery, together offer investors a finely graded market ranking of sovereign risk within a single currency union, updated in real time as sentiment shifts.

How Yields Have Changed Since 2019

Ten-year yields have risen sharply since 2019. Germany and Japan had negative or near-zero yields as recently as 2021, but by 2026 both are firmly positive, at 2.9 and 2.6 percent, as inflation returned and central banks tightened. The rise in yields since 2019 marks the end of one of the strangest episodes in financial history, the era of negative interest rates, when investors in several countries effectively paid governments for the privilege of lending to them. The four largest advanced economies shown, the United States, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, all followed the same broad path, plunging during the pandemic and then surging as inflation returned, though they started and ended at very different levels.

The US ten-year rose from below 1 percent in 2020 to about 4.5 percent by 2026, one of the sharpest increases in decades, a move our short-term government securities coverage tracks at the shorter end.

The end of negative yields: Germany and Japan had negative or near-zero yields as recently as 2021, but by 2026 both are firmly positive, while the US rose from below 1 to 4.5 percent.

The end of the negative-yield era is one of the biggest shifts in modern bond markets, with trillions of dollars of bonds that once carried yields below zero now paying investors a positive return once again. The scale of the shift is hard to overstate, since at the peak of the negative-yield era in 2020 more than 18 trillion dollars of bonds worldwide carried yields below zero, a figure that has since collapsed to almost nothing. Whether yields continue to fall as inflation cools, as many central banks expect, or stay elevated on the weight of government borrowing, will be one of the defining questions for the global economy over the rest of the decade.

The US Ten-Year and the Fed

The US ten-year yield broadly tracks the federal funds rate but with its own dynamics. It rose above 4 percent as the Fed hiked in 2022 and 2023, and has stayed elevated even as the Fed began cutting, reflecting large deficits and sticky inflation. The US ten-year yield is arguably the single most important price in global finance, serving as the benchmark for everything from mortgage rates to corporate borrowing costs, which is why its every move is scrutinised by investors around the world. The US ten-year has diverged from the federal funds rate at key moments, most notably in 2025 and 2026, when it stayed high even as the Fed cut, a sign that the bond market worried more about deficits and inflation than about the central bank easing.

The gap between the ten-year and the policy rate has narrowed and widened over the cycle, reflecting shifting expectations for growth and inflation, a relationship our financial markets in the US coverage describes.

Long yields stay high: the US ten-year rose above 4 percent as the Fed hiked, and has stayed near 4.5 percent even as the Fed began cutting, reflecting deficits and sticky inflation.

That the ten-year has held near 4.5 percent even as the Fed cut rates in 2025 and 2026 reflects investor concern about the scale of US government borrowing and the outlook for inflation over the coming decade. The persistence of a high US ten-year yield despite Fed rate cuts has become a key concern for policymakers, since it keeps borrowing costs elevated for households and businesses even as the central bank tries to ease financial conditions.

The US Ten-Year Since 2019

Since 2019 the US ten-year Treasury yield has been on a rollercoaster, falling to 0.93 percent in the 2020 pandemic, surging above 4.5 percent by 2024, and settling near 4.45 percent in 2026. It is the sharpest round trip in a generation. The journey of the US ten-year yield since 2019 captures the whole arc of the recent economic cycle, from the deflationary fears of the pandemic through the inflation shock and into the uncertain, higher-rate world that has followed. The 2020 low of 0.93 percent and the subsequent climb above 4.5 percent bracket one of the most dramatic swings in the history of the US Treasury market, driven by the pandemic, the inflation shock and the Fed response to both.

The pandemic collapse and the inflation-driven surge have both played out in barely six years, a compression of the normal cycle our largest asset managers coverage frames.

A generation-defining swing: the US ten-year fell to 0.93 percent in the 2020 pandemic, surged above 4.5 percent by 2024, and sits near 4.45 percent in 2026.

The recent path shows how quickly the cost of long-term government borrowing can change, with yields that had been anchored near record lows for years climbing faster than at almost any time in modern history. The lesson of the recent period is that even the safest, most liquid government bond in the world can see its yield triple or quadruple in a few years, a reminder that long-term borrowing costs are far from fixed.

Bond Yields in Numbers

A few numbers capture the picture. As of June 2026, ten-year yields range from 0.32 percent in Switzerland to 4.78 percent in Australia among advanced economies, with the US at 4.45 percent, and up to 27 percent in Turkey among emerging markets. These figures together map the cost of long-term borrowing across the world, a landscape shaped by decades of economic history and by the immediate pressures of inflation, deficits and central bank policy in each individual country.

The figures matter because ten-year yields set the cost of long-term borrowing for governments, companies and homeowners, and serve as a benchmark for global finance, a role our gold as an investment coverage sets against other assets.

Together these figures show a world of vastly different borrowing costs, from the near-free money of Switzerland and Japan to the double-digit yields of high-inflation emerging markets, all shaped by inflation, policy and risk.

Government Bond Yields: The Big Picture

Taken together, the yields on ten-year government bonds of selected countries in June 2026 map the cost of long-term borrowing around the world, from safe havens to high-inflation emerging markets, a landscape shaped by the forces in our leading investment banks coverage.

Whether yields fall as inflation cools or stay high on heavy government borrowing depends on each country outlook, but ten-year bonds remain the benchmark for global borrowing costs, alongside the assets in our crypto market and leading fund groups overviews.

Frequently Asked Questions: Government Bond Yields