Debt crisis: demand for gilts and bunds soar in May Tradeweb, which handles around 25pc of the multi-trillion-euro European sovereign bond market, said the latest phase of the debt crisis had led to "a flight to quality, particularly in the final part of the month." Gilt yields dropped 55 basis points in May to 1.6pc. The spread between the 10-year benchmark bond for Germany and the Spanish equivalent widened to a record of 537 basis points on May 30. Market jitters spread to Italy too where the spread between Italian 10-year bonds widened to 485 basis points - the highest since January. Germany, whose economy has withstood the batterings of the three-year-old debt crisis, is seen as the only proper safe haven in the eurozone. Meanwhile, investors have increasingly been attracted to the UK as a non-eurozone state and also because of the strength of its triple-A credit rating. The UK's debt has a longer maturity that many other of its European counterparts. George Osborne has claimed that demand for UK gilts is a reflection of the market confidence in the Government's austerity drive and pledge to control the public finances, despite the high debt levels.