Who owns sovereign bonds and why it matters

Investors have flocked to sovereign debt markets, attracted by high yields. But in appraising the riskiness of these bonds, they need to think about who else holds them. As government debt loads swell to proportions not seen since the Second World War and inflation forces central banks to hike interest rates, investors are having to balance the attractions of some of the highest yields on sovereign debt in more than a decade against the risks of owning those bonds.