Korea's 3-year/10-year bond spread stayed positive and widened a little over two weeks
Over nine trading days to 2026-08-21, the gap between Korea's 10-year and 3-year government bond yields ran 0.46 to 0.60 points, ending near 0.55 — never inverted. It widened from the long end: the 10-year rose, the 3-year held. Not advice.
AI-assisted, human-reviewed sourcing. Figures are pulled programmatically from the official sources listed at the end of this article and checked by an editor before publication.
yield curvebond spreadgovernment bondsktb3 year 10 yearinterest rateskorea
A yield curve is not one number, and it does not sit still. Over the nine trading days to 2026-08-21, the gap between Korea’s 10-year and 3-year government bond yields — the piece of the curve investors watch most — ran between 0.46 and 0.60 points and finished near 0.55. It never turned negative.
The spread, day by day
| Date | 3-year | 10-year | 3y–10y spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-10 | 3.78% | 4.24% | 0.46 |
| 2026-08-13 | 3.78% | 4.38% | 0.60 |
| 2026-08-18 | 3.82% | 4.42% | 0.60 |
| 2026-08-21 | 3.82% | 4.37% | 0.55 |
The steepening is at the long end
The spread widened by about 9 basis points over the two weeks, and the reason is one-sided: the 10-year rose (roughly 4.24% to 4.37%) while the 3-year held near 3.8%. When people say a curve “steepened,” it can mean short rates fell or long rates rose — here it was the long end doing the work.
An inverted curve — short yields above long — is the shape that draws headlines. Korea’s did the opposite over this window: it stayed normally sloped and got a little steeper. For the single-day picture across every maturity from one to thirty years, see Korea’s government bond curve.
These are listed closing yields of individual Korea Treasury Bonds, not the Bank of Korea’s official reference rates, and nine days is a window, not a trend. We report what the bonds did. What it means is not ours to say — this is data, not advice.
Data & Verification Notes
- Data as of
- Sources
- Korea government bonds (KTB), listed closing yields — getBondPriceInfo (일자별 채권 종가·종가수익률, daily bond close and yield-to-maturity), Korea Treasury Bond (국고채) issues only, nine trading days 2026-08-10 to 2026-08-21
- Cross-checks
- For each of the nine trading days, the 3-year and 10-year points are the listed KTB whose remaining maturity is closest to that tenor (within 25%), with the maturity read from the bond's name and a yield inside a plausible 0.3–8% band. The spread is the 10-year yield minus the 3-year
- The 3y–10y spread ran 0.463 (Aug 10), 0.479, 0.491, 0.598, 0.503, 0.604 (Aug 18), 0.514, 0.536, and 0.550 (Aug 21). It stayed positive every day — the curve did not invert — and ended 9 basis points above where it began, inside a 0.46–0.60 band
- The move came from the long end. The 10-year rose from about 4.24% to 4.37% over the window; the 3-year barely moved, from about 3.78% to 3.82%. A steeper curve here is long yields rising, not short yields falling
- Three sessions in the window were market holidays and carry no data (Aug 15–17, around Liberation Day); those days are left out rather than filled in
- Excluded figures
- The Bank of Korea's official reference rates, which are built from over-the-counter final quotes and can differ from these listed-exchange closes
- Any forecast or signal reading. A positive, widening 3y–10y spread is reported here as what the listed bonds did over nine days — not as a call on rates, growth or recession
- Absolute price levels. Yields are scale-invariant and comparable across issues; the closing prices behind them are not the subject
The full dataset behind these figures — every listed company, every row — is available to license. SeoulMarkets data for licence →
Not investment advice. SMarkets publishes data journalism for general information only. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security — any investment you make is at your own risk and responsibility. Figures are derived from official public data sources and may be revised by the issuing agency. Verify independently before acting.
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