Bond markets: when it pays to borrow | Editorial
A funny thing happened in the bond markets last week, although it mostly stayed under the public radar. While attention was (understandably) focused on the downgrades of France, Austria and other EU nations, a few days earlier investors were actually paying to lend the British government money. That’s right: the Treasury auctioned £700m of bonds last Tuesday and sold them at an inflation-adjusted interest rate of -0.116%. The UK is being paid to take cash off the hands of fund managers and bankers.
David Cameron and George Osborne regularly wheel out low borrowing costs as proof that the coalition has pulled off its primary task: of reassuring financiers that Britain is a safe haven. While governments in Rome or Madrid are paying sky-high sums just to conduct their regular business, and the folk at Standard & Poor’s are sucking their teeth over the prospects for Paris, London can still raise cash at super-cheap interest rates.
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