Government Bonds in Datastream

These days there is a lot of talk about the financial stability of many nations as a consequence of the economic crisis in 2007/2008. Several other long-term financial problems have appeared and have shaken the financial institutions and the ability of nations to borrow money. One of the indicators of the financial stability of a nation is government bonds and their performance.

Datastream has a specific section where you can find information about the types of government bonds that exits. This Data Type section is called "Bonds & Convertibles". By combining the following criteria you can get an overview of the bonds:
1) Issuer Type: Sovereign
2) Instrument Type: Bonds

By selecting a Market it is also possible to get the bonds for a specific country.

Some information on government bonds, however, is not available under the section "Bonds & Convertibles". This information relates to the benchmark 10 Year Government bonds. If you want that information you need to do a search in the Data Type section "Interest rates".
In this Data type section you can search for the text Bond in the name to get all the bond series that are available. This way you can compare, for instance, the interest rate on Government bonds for different periods: 1 Year, 2 Year etc.

By looking for the text Benchmark you get all the Datastream Benchmark Bonds. Here you find an example of the Redemption Yield of Benchmark bonds for the countries Belgium, France, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands.

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02:05 PM - 29 October 2010