Interest rate market

On the interest rate market in 2013, we observed increased volatility in the prices of instruments with longer maturities and a tendency on the yield curve to slope sharply. For the major part of the year the profitability of 2-year Treasury bonds remained at a level close to 3%. In this case, the relatively stable quotations were largely the result of the Monetary Policy Council assuring that interest rates would remain unchanged in the mid term. On the other hand, in the case of the longer end of the curve, pressure for an increase in the profitability of bonds was created by the increasingly strong expectations of a global economic recovery, as well as the prospect of the U.S. Fed withdrawing from its expansive monetary policy. As a result, in 2013 the yield on Polish 2-year bonds dropped slightly by 9 b.p. to 3.03%, and the yield on 5- and 10-year bonds increased by 43-62 b.p. to 3.65% and 4.35% respectively. On the bond market, the spread between the 10- and 2-year sectors in December 2013 reached a historical high level of 165 b.p.