And it is not just governments that can borrow at negative rates, with yields on the bonds issued by some highly rated corporations also turning negative recently. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  With nominal rates so low, real long-term government bond yields in much of the world are negative.
One way of calculating these real rates is to subtract the central bank’s inflation target from the nominal 10-year yield. The results of this are shown in this next graph (Graph 3).