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Between 2009 and 2022, purchases of long-dated government bonds and assets such as mortgage-backed securities by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan totaled an eye-watering $19.7 trillion, according to Fitch.

Now the world’s most influential central banks — apart from the Bank of Japan — are steadily reducing the size of their balance sheets, and no one knows for sure what will happen as more and more liquidity is withdrawn from the financial system.

While government debt levels have skyrocketed in recent years, the cost of servicing that debt has been tamped down by the willingness of central banks to buy large chunks of it. Now, governments need to find other buyers if they want to finance green investment projects or measures to digitize their economies.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/19/econo...index.html