Report highlights include:

• EU Member States and the UK issued EUR 1096 bn in bonds and bills throughout 1Q25, which represents an increase of 29.6% (QoQ) compared to 4Q24, and an increase of 5.7% (YoY) compared to 1Q24. In the UK, total quarterly bond and bill issuance increased 25.2% YoY during 1Q25, with volumes representing 17.5% of the European (EU+UK) total.

• Second-highest average trading volumes in European (EU+UK) government bonds during Q1 2025, according to MarketAxess TraX, with trading decreasing 0.2% (YoY) and increasing 21.1% (QoQ). This represents the second-highest average daily traded volume on record (since 2014) for a single quarter with trading in 1Q25 only marginally below peak volumes observed in 1Q24.

• Outstanding amount of European ESG government bonds reached EUR 576.0 bn during 1Q25. Volumes were driven by new green bonds issuance by Italy (EUR 5.0 bn), Austria (EUR 3.5 bn) and Hungary (EUR 1.0 bn) and tap issuance by the UK (EUR 5.0 bn), Germany (EUR 4.2 bn), France (EUR 1.3 bn), Romania (EUR 0.6 bn) and the European Commission (EUR 5.0 bn).

• During 1Q25 there were 2 long-term credit rating upgrades for European countries and no downgrades. This was followed by 2 further upgrades and no downgrades in 2Q25 to date, bringing the 2025 year-to-date total to 4 upgrades and no downgrades.

• There were 3 entries and 1 exit in European primary dealership from January 2025 to March 2025 with a net change of 2. Changes in primary dealership affected sovereign debt markets in Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Romania. This follows 8 entries and 6 exits in total of banks to primary dealer systems from December 2024 to January 2025.

The average bid-cover ratio (demand/amount allocated) was 2.55 in 1Q25, an increase of 7.6% (QoQ) from 4Q24 and an increase of 5.4% from 1Q24 (YoY).