Corporate bond sales worldwide are faltering after setting a record in the first quarter as doubts about the strength of the economic recovery and Europe's sovereign-debt crisis resurface.

From the U.S. to Europe and Asia, issuance has fallen to the lowest levels of the year in the past two weeks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Offerings this month of $87 billion from borrowers led by Deere & Co., the largest maker of agricultural equipment, and Montreal-based Royal Bank of Canada compare with a weekly average of $89.9 billion in the first three months of 2012.

Sales are dwindling even as yields on bonds have fallen almost 1 percentage point from last year's high of more than 5 percent in October, showing reduced confidence in the global outlook among borrowers. Last week, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde singled out a worsening of the European debt turmoil as the largest risk to growth, while adding that threats to the economy have diminished.