In effect, a convertible consists of two bits: a normal bond, plus an option to buy equities.

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And historically it has been less sensitive to interest-rate moves, so in that sense it is not quite like a normal bond.

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When rates rise to more normal levels, bond prices will drop just as the sun falls in the evening as it plummets toward the horizon as it sets in the west.

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The fear now is that bonds may be nearing the end of a 30 year bull market run, and if interest rates start to rise to more normal levels, bond prices could fall quickly.

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Agreements fully enacted in 1997 and 2006 stopped the state using it as an ATM, and as interest rates were liberalised and the bond market developed, the RBI began to look more like a normal central bank, setting short-term policy rates to try to balance inflation and growth.

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The lesson to private creditors from Germany, the IMF and others at the negotiating table last night would seem to be that things are getting back to normal, and that normality cannot just mean that stock markets and bond prices continue to go up.

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One possibility is that the economy will start returning to normal, in which case short-term interest rates will rise and bond markets will suffer.

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In normal times, for most countries, the key factors determining the level of bond yields are not the government's budget plans, but investors' forecasts for future growth and inflation.

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