Germany has a new test of investors’ voracious appetite for bonds with very low or even negative yields: a 30-year bond that offers no interest payments at all.

Wednesday’s auction of a new €2bn bond maturing in 2050 marks the first time that Berlin has issued 30-year debt with a zero per cent coupon — a step it has already taken with 10-year bonds.

Investors have piled into German Bunds— the eurozone’s benchmark safe asset — in recent weeks amid concerns about flagging global growth and ex?pectations that the European Central Bank is poised to present a fresh package of easing measures. Germany’s central bank warned on Monday that Europe’s largest economy is likely to tip into recession in the third quarter, as global trade tensions hit exports from its huge industrial sector.