Debt investors can breathe a sigh of relief and stop fretting about liquidity in the market, according to the U.S. Treasury.

Measures of corporate-bond liquidity—typically defined as the ability to trade an asset without moving its price—show all is well, with volumes, sizes, and bid-offer spreads similar to or better than historic averages, Jake Liebschutz, director of the capital markets office at the department, wrote in a blog post on the Treasury's website. Complaints about and predictions of a liquidity crisis are instead the result of an evolution in the bond market, he wrote, alongside Brian Smith, a senior policy adviser in the same office.

“The available evidence, when viewed holistically and in light of recent market trends, does not suggest a broad-based deterioration in liquidity,” they wrote. Rather, “the corporate bond market is undergoing significant changes that are reshaping the nature of trading and liquidity provision.”