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CONKLING KOPCIKECONOMICS
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Financial Services & Capital Markets

U.S. Corporate Credit Spread — Gilchrist–Zakrajšek (GZ), Monthly

The average spread of U.S. corporate bond yields over Treasury yields of the same duration, from the Federal Reserve Board: a broad measure of what companies pay to borrow over the government.

Data status: Current
Official statisticSource figures as of October 16, 2026Sources & methods
Sources
Federal Reserve Board
Period covered
Jan 1973 – Sep 2026
Source figures as of
October 16, 2026
Geography
United States
Sector
Financial Services & Capital Markets
Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable
Transformations
Views other than the level (changes, averages, volatility) are calculated by CK Economics from these figures
Revisions
Replaced with the source’s latest figures whenever it revises them.
Data status
Current

Full method · Research standards

Key figures

CK estimatePercentage points · calculated by CK Economics from Federal Reserve Board data

Latest · Sep 2026
0.93
0.0 pp vs a year earlier1
5-year change
−0.3 pp
since Sep 20212
10-year change
−1.2 pp
since Sep 20162
Record high
7.84
Nov 20083
Record low
0.56
Oct 19783
Where the latest ranks
8th pct.
Higher than 8% of the other 644 observations since Jan 19734
  1. 1Latest observation against the observation one year earlier (for weekly data, the nearest within three days).
  2. 2Latest observation against the observation five and ten years earlier.
  3. 3Highest and lowest published observations across the full history shown.
  4. 4Share of the other published observations that are lower than the latest one, rounded down.

Methodology

The GZ spread (Gilchrist and Zakrajšek, 2012) averages, across a large panel of senior unsecured bonds issued by U.S. non-financial companies, each bond's yield over the yield of a synthetic Treasury security with exactly the same cash flows, so maturity is matched bond by bond. The Federal Reserve Board's staff update it monthly in the CSV published with the 2016 FEDS Note, in percentage points. The Board's file is read as published. Information on the Federal Reserve Board's website is in the public domain. It replaces the commercial bond-index spreads that FRED republishes only with the index owners' permission.

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Source

Federal Reserve Board, Gilchrist–Zakrajšek credit spread (gz_spread), with Favara, Gilchrist, Lewis and Zakrajšek, "Updating the Recession Risk and the Excess Bond Premium", FEDS Notes, 2016: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/updating-the-recession-risk-and-the-excess-bond-premium-20161006.html — figures as published on 16 October 2026.

All data

645 observations, newest first · Percentage points

Downloading means you accept our TermsCSVJSON
PeriodValueChange y/y
Sep 20260.93+0.03 pp
Aug 20260.88−0.06 pp
Jul 20260.84−0.09 pp
Jun 20260.86−0.13 pp
May 20260.83−0.19 pp
Apr 20260.92−0.35 pp
Mar 20261.03−0.09 pp
Feb 20260.97−0.03 pp
Jan 20260.86−0.05 pp
Dec 20250.91−0.03 pp
Nov 20250.95−0.01 pp
Oct 20250.94−0.05 pp
Sep 20250.89−0.16 pp
Aug 20250.94−0.16 pp
Jul 20250.93−0.15 pp
Jun 20250.99−0.11 pp
May 20251.03+0.04 pp
Apr 20251.27+0.25 pp
Mar 20251.12+0.06 pp
Feb 20251−0.11 pp
Jan 20250.9−0.21 pp
Dec 20240.94−0.21 pp
Nov 20240.96−0.24 pp
Oct 20240.99−0.44 pp

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