Germany became the second nation whose government has sold 10-year bonds with a negative interest rate at auction, as the pool of negative yielding assets continues to grow in response to low levels of global economic growth and uncertainty thrown up by the U.K's vote to leave the European Union.

The German government raised €4 billion ($4.5 billion) through the sale of ten-year debt, at a rate of -0.05%, with a maturity date of Aug. 15, 2026. Wednesday's auction attracted 1.2 bidders for every piece of paper sold and saw Germany join Japan as one of only two nations who have issued ten-year debt at negative rates.

The landmark event for Germany comes just a week after analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch reported that the total value of negative yielding bonds has reached $11 trillion. 

The deepening pool of negative-yielding assets comes in response to increasing expectations that the ECB will ease further during the coming weeks and that the Bank of England will cut rates as well as reignite the printing presses, possibly as early as Thursday. The Federal Reserve is also widely expected to adopt a slower and more measured approach to tightening.

Monetary policymakers are contemplating stimuli as heightened political uncertainty following the U.K.'s Brexit vote collides with low developed-world growth rates and worries about a slowdown in China.

Add to this concerns over Italian banks, whose travails may prompt a state rescue, and the incentive for investors to purchase negative yielding, but safe-haven debt, becomes clearer.

The Bank of England will announce its latest interest decision on Thursday at noon London time - or 7 a.m. on the East Coast.

The consensus published by Reuters suggests that the monetary policy committee will choose to remain on hold throughout July, but Credit Suisse has suggested that the Bank of England could cut rates as low as 0.05% in one fell swoop this week.

The ECB will announce its latest interest rate decision and any changes to monetary policy on Thursday,  July 21.

Researchers at Capital Economics said on Thursday, in response to weaker than expected industrial production data for the euro-zone, that they expect the ECB to ease further as soon as the July meeting.

They cite recovering oil prices and uncertainty thrown up by the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union as key factors behind declining industrial production and their anticipation of further action to come from the central bank.

The yield on the German 10-year bond was recently up 1 basis points at minus 0.08%.