The oversubscription rate of the notes issued under the NIP, in which the HKMA acts as the arranger, custodian, agent and operator, averaged 4.9 times.
Peter Styles of the European Federation of Energy Traders, a trade body, notes that Spain's scheme stops green-energy generators accruing excess profits to begin with, which will distort the way prices are set in the market.
In per-capita terms, it is believed to have the world's highest rate of deaths, according to a study of excess deaths from all causes by the Financial Times – though Britain may soon overtake it.
In the wake of Lehman's collapse, the spread (or excess interest rate) on junk bonds rose so far that it implied default on a scale not seen since the Great Depression.
In Spain, where consumers' energy costs have soared, the government wants to seize what it describes as " excess profits" from utility companies to reduce household bills.
This final belief is captured by a squeezed " equity risk premium" , which measures the excess expected return investors require in order to hold risky shares instead of safer bonds.