Lates News

France now has about 215 billion ($241 billion) of corporate bonds whose trading performance has shown a lower risk premium than French government bonds. After a large-scale selloff in sovereign debt, this scale has nearly expanded 18-fold since the start of 2026. Data show that as of Wednesday, about 38% of all of France's high-rated corporate debt yielded less than government bonds of the same maturity. By comparison, at the start of the year this amounted to only 12 billion. As market confidence in government debt weakens, corporate bonds have now become one of the safest havens, especially for companies with internationally oriented businesses such as L'Oreal and oil and gas giant TotalEnergies. Elisa Belgacem, senior credit strategist at Generali Investments, said: "The performance of French sovereign debt and corporate credit has become increasingly disconnected. Companies and banks are still seeing strong demand from investors, which highlights the market's confidence in issuers' fundamentals and recognition of the attractiveness of all-in yields."