Question: Please help me with the following question based on the given article, there is only one option that is correct. Please also explain why is
Please help me with the following question based on the given article, there is only one option that is correct. Please also explain why is the option correct and other options are wrong.
QUESTION 7 The following article is on borrowing cost change in Euro zone: Analysis: End of an era in sight as euro area borrowing costs sweep above 0% LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - When euro zone interest rates turned negative in 2014, fixed income specialist Michael Hampden-Turner recalls having to explain to baffled bond Investors how they could be charged to lend money to governments. As central banks sought to help economies through a succession of crises by making it costly to hoard cash rather than put it to work, investors soon found themselves paying many countries - and even some companies - to take their money. Savers complained that up-ending the practice of charging borrowers Interest robbed them of wealth, but by late 2020, 75% of euro zone sovereign debt on Tradeweb's platform - roughly 6.7 trillion euros ($7.45 trillion) - carried negative yields. Nearly a decade later, Hampden-Turner, previously at Citi and now fixed income director at FTSE Russell, is watching borrowing costs climb back above 0%. Now, his younger colleagues must get their heads around positive yields. "Previously, it was just getting people familiar with it, and now we've got a whole generation of traders that have never known anything but negative yields," said Hampden-Turner. "All of a sudden that's changing." Negative-yielding euro debt pool less than 25% of total Euro-denominated govt bonds with negative yields, as a pct share of total bonds on Tradeweb 70 38888 10 O 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Non:Mnumborummuhtudouotmounnmmmumammmmwnwm Smeb Reuters Graphics Reuters Graphics More attractive returns could bring investors back to the region and boost the euro, while easing strains on banks and pension funds. Likely losers include riskier emerging and corporate bonds that were snapped up in a hunt for returns. Money markets see the ECB exiting negative rates by year-end as it tightens policy to tackle soaring inflation . Less than a third of euro zone debt on Tradeweb's platform now carries a negative yield, while Deutsche Bank estimates the global pool has shrunk to less than $3 trillion for the first time since December 2015, from a 2020 peak of over $18 trillion. Yields on German 'IO-year bonds vaulted above 0% in January for the first time since 2019 and are at 0.6%. Two-year yields turned positive for the first time since 2014 this week . Germany's 10year Bund yield- the path back above 0% Bund yield: the path out of negativeryield territory Blamed for a huge rise in debt and inflating housing and stock market bubbles, negative rates have also been bad news for pension funds and Insurers, which use current bond yields to value future liabilities. Because they cannot make money holding "safe" government bonds, they have been forced take on more risk: a 2019 IMF paper showed large pension plans had doubled allocations to illiquid, alternative assets since 2007. German insurers whose investment products guarantee an income in old age have been under particular pressure, with regulators requiring they set aside additional reserves since 2011. For banks, negative rates have hurt profitability by eroding their net interest margins. Euro area bank stocks have slid some 40% since 2014 .(.SX7E), and Japan's banks 10% since rates there fell below 0% in 2016 ,(.IBNI(S.T),. "If interest rates are like a guide to banks pricing power, interest rates in Europe have been at a 5,000-year low. 50 banks' pricing power has been at a 5,000-year low," said Morgan Stanley chief European equity strategist Graham Secker. As short-dated bond yields turned positive this week, euro zone bank shares gained almost 4%. A return to positive yields could also bring back capital from higheryielding assets. "If you're an insurance fund, the opportunities for investment for you have just expanded drastically," said Helene Jolly, head of EMEA investmentgrade corporate debt syndicate at Deutsche Bank. "Before this it was harder for you to hit targets. You maybe had to go slightly longer than you wanted to, or to a slightly lower credit rating." Investors are already returning to higher-quality debt. Thirty-year French and Belgian , government bonds saw strong investor demand after yields rose above 1% in January, debt officials noted. Which of the following statement(s) is CORRECT according to the article? i. Interest rate (yield) should be a risk factor for banks. ii. If the yield in the fixed income market is too low, investors may have to invest in riskier investments. iii. Expected return on fixed income assets can not be negative due to the government policies to make hoarding cash costly. 0 land ii 0 land iii 0 ii and iii 0 i, ii and
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