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So a few times each year, Nedelea, a 46-year-old project manager, waits patiently in line for hours at a run-down facility in downtown Bucharest for a nurse to prick his arm. Later, he logs onto his brokerage account and uploads a blood-donor’s certificate to retrieve his financial reward: a chance to buy Romanian government bonds offering souped-up interest rates of over 7%. That’s a full percentage point above the going rate available to most retail investors. “You may lose half of a day for the actual donation,” Nedelea said, “but it’s clearly worth it.” Romania is tapping retail investors through an unusual blood-for-bonds program, offering donors access to government securities with yields above standard rates. The initiative has raised $604 million since 2025 while addressing blood shortages. As governments worldwide seek household savings to fund rising deficits, policymakers are increasingly using incentives, marketing and tax breaks. The blood-for-bonds program is one of the world’s most unusual debt-financing campaigns. For Romania, though, it’s working — managing to both ease the country’s chronic blood shortage and secure much-needed cash to help cover its substantial budget deficit. It’s raised roughly 2.8 billion lei ($604 million) since the start of 2025, from tens of thousands of individual investors. The country is part of a global push by policymakers to convince everyday citizens to help fund public spending. From Italy to Japan to Brazil, officials are experimenting with novel ways to entice plumbers and mechanics and teachers to buy bonds. With government debt having soared across much of the world in recent years, the urgency has grown. In Romania today, the retail investor program, when including the blood-for-bonds swap, provides close to a fifth of the government’s entire borrowing needs. “Every little bit helps,” said Moritz Kraemer, chief economist at German lender Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, and former chief ratings officer at S&P Global. “Governments are trying to mop up any credit that they can get.” Part of the attraction has to do with how retail investors behave. For the most part, they tend to buy and hold, unlike hedge funds and foreign institutions that can race for the exit during times of turmoil. At the same time, higher interest rates have made the bonds more attractive to ordinary savers. In Japan, bond sales are booming as individuals reach for the highest yields in decades. It sold a record ¥5.14 trillion ($33 billion) in bonds to retail investors from April to September, an 84% surge from a year ago. Yet winning over households comes at a price, especially if treasurers have to offer tax breaks or higher yields to lure buyers. Skeptics argue that, in most countries, the amounts invested are too small to make much of a dent in deficits. Governments must also consider that successful bond programs will drain money from consumer savings accounts, creating risks to banks, and in some cases, financial stability. Back in Romania, which had the biggest budget deficit in the European Union last year, Treasury Chief Stefan Nanu contends the social benefits justify the extra cost of blood bonds. The program, which started in 2023 as a campaign with a popular rock radio station, has zero marketing costs and gets free TV advertising, he added. “Our purpose is not to make some people rich, it’s to support blood donation,” Nanu said in an interview. Laviniu Beze, head of a Romanian association of retail traders, is one of those answering the call. He donates four times a year to load up on bonds, which now make up 40% of his portfolio. “I have trading in my blood,” he said. “As an investor, even if you are getting one percentage point more, of course you have to use it.” (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2025, Share Market on Budget 2025 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .) Subscribe to ET Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today. Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips, Budget 2025, Share Market on Budget 2025 and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .) Subscribe to ET Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today. Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price
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