A government bond is a bond issued by a national government denominated in the country's own currency. Bonds issued by national governments in foreign currencies are normally referred to as sovereign bonds. The first ever government bond was issued by the British government in 1693 to raise money to fund a war against France. It was in the form of a tontine.

Risk

Government bonds are usually referred to as risk-free bonds, because the government can raise taxes or simply print more money to redeem the bond at maturity. Some counter examples do exist where a government has defaulted on its domestic currency debt, such as Russia in 1998 (the "ruble crisis"), though this is very rare.

As an example, in the US, Treasury securities are denominated in US dollars and are the safest US dollar investments. In this instance, the term "risk-free" means free of credit risk. However, other risks still exist, such as currency risk for foreign investors (for example non-US investors of US Treasury securities would have received lower returns in 2004 because the value of the US dollar declined against most other currencies). Secondly, there is inflation risk, in that the principal repaid at maturity will have less purchasing power than anticipated if the inflation outturn is higher than expected. Many governments issue inflation-indexed bonds, which should protect investors against inflation risk. The protection has been questioned by John Williams' ShadowStats.com, which claims that government-calculated inflation is understated by as much as 5 percent, making also inflation-indexed bonds yield a loss.

See also

• Government debt
• Municipal bond
• List of government bonds

External links

• Government bonds explained in simple terms

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