Illinois Bonds an Opportunity for ‘Bold’ Investors, Citi Says
- Debt paying highest yields over benchmark since at least 2013
- Multi-notch downgrade into junk is unlikely, Citi says
This article is for subscribers only.
Illinois’s nearly two-year budget impasse has created a buying opportunity for municipal-bond investors willing to bear the risks, according to Citigroup Inc.
With the Democrat-led legislature and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner unable to forge agreement on how to close the state’s chronic budget deficits, Illinois’s 10-year bonds yield 4.43 percent, or 2.45 percentage point more than top-rated municipal borrowers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the biggest premium since the indexes were started in January 2013.