EU member countries and the UK issued €1.019 trillion in bonds and bills throughout the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 7.4% on Q1 of 2023.

That’s according to the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME).

AFME said non-Eurozone countries had the largest increase in total (bond and bill) issuance during Q1 of 2024, with UK gilts gross issuance rising 34% YoY compared to Q1 of 2023.

“Record trading volumes in European (EU+UK) government bonds during Q1 2024, according to TraX data from MarketAxess,” said AFME.

“The traded amount in Q1 2024 was the highest average daily trading volume in European government bonds since records began in 2014, with trading volume increasing 20.3% QoQ and 26.7% YoY.”

AFME said the outstanding amount of European ESG government bonds reached €475.9 billion during Q1 of 2024 “with volumes driven by new green bonds issued by France (EUR 7 bn), Germany (EUR 6 bn), the UK (EUR 5.5 bn), and Italy (EUR 3.7 bn) … The European Commission issued additionally EUR 5.8 bn in NGEU Green bonds.”

AFME added: “There was a net loss of 1 primary dealer in Europe (including the EU) from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024.

“There were 3 exits and 2 entries of banks to the European Primary Dealer system. Czechia, Greece, and Slovakia each had 1 primary dealer exit. Bulgaria and the UK each had 1 bank entering the local primary dealer system.

“During 1Q24 there was 1 credit rating upgrade in Portugal. According to the most recent data, Europe saw 1 credit rating downgrade in 2Q 2024 in France. This follows 3 upgrades and 1 downgrade in 4Q23.

“Roadmap to DLT Bond Issuance: AFME has published a report titled ‘Scaling Digital Bonds’ which sets a roadmap to help Sovereign, Supranational and Agency (SSA) issuers gradually implement issuance of digital bonds with the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

“Global issuance of DLT-based SSA bonds up to March 2024 (USD $980mn) already exceeded the total for the whole of 2023 by 204%.”