At the time, the average yield on bonds with a credit rating of ccc, a speculative grade, was around 8%.

当时，信用评级为 ccc（投机级别）的债券的平均收益率约为 8%。

On both sides of the Atlantic roughly one-third of debt covered by credit-rating agencies is deemed to be speculative grade, less charitably known as junk, with iffy prospects of repayment.

在大西洋两岸， 信用评级机构覆盖的债务中大约有三分之一被认为是投机级别的，通常被称为垃圾级别， 偿还前景不明朗。

Whereas 11 investment-grade firms failed to repay their debts in 2009, all of the defaults in the first year of the pandemic happened among companies already labelled as riskier speculative grades.

尽管 2009 年有 11 家投资级公司未能偿还债务，但疫情第一年的所有违约都发生在已经被标记为风险较高投机级的公司中。