This report provides a comprehensive data source with updated statistics of the Government bond primary and secondary markets in Europe (EU28).

• Average daily trading volumes of European government bonds decreased by 12% YoY during 2Q18, driven by a significant decrease in German (-16%YoY) and French (-18% YoY) trading, only partially offset by increases in UK (17% YoY) and IE (78% YoY). 2Q18 saw the lowest trading volume for a second quarter since 2013.
  
  The 12% annual fall in government bond trading during 2Q18 is of smaller magnitude than the annual decline in investment-grade corporate bonds (-17% YoY according to Trax), but larger than European equities (-1% YoY according to CBOE markets) and contrasts with the annual increase in high yield corporate bonds (+1% YoY according to Trax) and global FX trading (+16% YoY, according to CLS).
  
  
• European Government bond and bills gross issuance declined by 12% compared to 1Q18 and was 5.8% below the volume issued in 2Q17.
  
  
• The second quarter of the year saw 3 long-term credit rating upgrades for EU countries (after 8 upgrades in the first quarter) and no downgrades. This reflects significant credit quality improvements of European sovereign issuers, particularly of southern European and CEE countries, bringing the year to date total to 14 upgrades and 0 downgrades (3 further upgrades so far in 3Q18).