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The real yield of any bond is the annualized growth rate, less the rate of inflation over the same period. This calculation is often difficult in principle in the case of a nominal bond, because the yields of such a bond are specified for future periods in nominal terms, while the inflation over the period is an unknown rate at the time of the calculation.
But if actual inflation exceeds expected inflation during the life of the bond, the bondholder's real return will suffer. This risk is one of the reasons inflation-indexed bonds such as U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities were created to eliminate inflation uncertainty. Holders of indexed bonds are assured that the real cash flow of ...
The equation is an approximation; however, the difference with the correct value is small as long as the interest rate and the inflation rate is low. The discrepancy becomes large if either the nominal interest rate or the inflation rate is high. The accurate equation can be expressed using periodic compounding as:
There is a time dimension to the analysis of bond values. A 10-year bond at purchase becomes a 9-year bond a year later, and the year after it becomes an 8-year bond, etc. Each year the bond moves incrementally closer to maturity, resulting in lower volatility and shorter duration and demanding a lower interest rate when the yield curve is rising.
They can take a similar form to fixed versus floating interest rate swaps (which are the derivative form for fixed rate bonds), but use a real rate coupon versus floating, but also pay a redemption pickup at maturity (i.e., the derivative form of inflation-indexed bonds). Inflation swaps are typically priced on a zero-coupon basis (ZC) (like ...
GDP-linked bonds are a form of floating-rate bond with a coupon that is associated with the growth rate of a country, just as other floating-rate bonds are linked to interest rates, such as LIBOR or federal funds rate, or inflation rates, which is the case of inflation-indexed bonds. These securities can be issued to reference real GDP, nominal ...
Both the UK and the US have issued inflation indexed government bonds to reduce their borrowing costs. When governments such as the UK and the US issue both inflation indexed bonds and regular nominal bonds, it gives them precise information on inflation expectation by observing the difference in yields between the two types of bonds.
As with all index-linked bonds, there are time lags between the collection of prices data, the publication of the inflation index and the indexation of the bond. From their introduction in 1981, index-linked gilts had an eight-month indexation lag (between the month of collection of prices data and the month of indexation of the bond).