Yields on the bonds issued by the European Financial Stability Fund, which was set up to bail out struggling economies, have stayed high in August despite eurozone bond spreads narrowing, suggesting investors remain sceptical about the efforts of governments and regulators to steady the region.

Since the agreement of the most recent Greek bailout by eurozone leaders and the European Central Bank at the end of July, spreads of the sovereign debt issued by Portugal, France and Spain over the benchmark German Bund have narrowed, according to Bloomberg. This movement may have been in part helped by the purchase of debt by the ECB.