Secondary market bond yields are falling today, two days before the ECB – according to all indications – proceeds with its first rate cut.

Both the analysts and the markets are discounting that the ECB will start from the day after Thursday the reduction of interest rates, by 0.25%, with the result that the basic deposit rate will be set at 3.75% from the 4% it is today.

The ECB’s decision – the first since 2019 – is seen as a result of both the deflationary path followed by inflation and the slowdown in economic growth in the eurozone.

It is recalled that the GDP of the eurozone increased in the first quarter of the year by only 0.3%, while inflation increased marginally to 2.6% in May from 2.4% in April.

However, the ECB’s revised forecasts for the course of inflation and GDP, which will be made public together with the decisions on monetary policy, are awaited with interest.

However, the markets remain restrained now considering that overall the ECB will proceed with only three – small – reductions in its interest rates. Specific milestones are the meetings of the Governing Council of the ECB, in June, September and December.

In the secondary bond market today, and more specifically in the Electronic Transaction System (HDAT) of the Bank of Greece, transactions of 91 million euros were recorded, of which 53 million euros related to purchase orders.

The yield on the Greek 10-year bond increased to 3.60% from 3.70 that closed yesterday, against 2.52% of the corresponding German bond, resulting in a spread of 1.08%.

In the foreign exchange market, the euro is moving upwards against the dollar, with the result that in the afternoon the European currency trades at 1.087 dollars from the level of 1.0800 dollars, which opened the market.