Zero-coupon yield curve
The set of rates for investments without interim payments across maturities, built from government issues.
How to read the number
It serves as the ruler for the whole debt market: a corporate yield decomposes into a rate taken from the curve plus a premium for credit risk.
When the metric lies
The curve is fitted by a model and smooths the observations, so its value at a given maturity need not equal the yield of an actual bond of that maturity.
Also known as: g-curve, zero curve