Business

Bank of England’s unprecedented bond market intervention yields £3.8bn profit

The Treasury is set to make £3.8bn in profit from the intervention the Bank of England made in markets last year.

The Bank bought £19.3bn worth of government debt – or gilts – in the wake of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng‘s mini-budget in September.

Soaring interest rates put some pension funds at risk of collapsing, leading to the Bank’s intervention.

It was announced on Thursday that the £19.3bn of gilts had been sold on the market.

Sky News understands it was bought for a total of around £23bn – although the figure has not been finalised.

This money will eventually be returned to the Treasury.

It will offset some of the losses from the Bank’s quantitative easing programme – which is forecast to lose anywhere from £50bn to £200bn in the next decade.

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The Bank started selling the government debt to public bidders in November, and finished its sell-off on Wednesday this week.

A statement said the Bank waited for interested buyers to come to them to prevent volatility in the market.

“This approach helped ensure that the unwind was responsive to market demand and did not trigger renewed dysfunction,” the Bank said.

“We welcome the successful completion of the Bank’s sales,” a Treasury spokesperson said.

“This targeted and temporary intervention was designed to restore financial stability and orderly market conditions.

“The government has also taken significant action to restore economic stability, taking difficult decisions on tax and spending and setting out a credible plan to halve inflation this year, grow the economy, and get debt falling.”

The mini-budget, which contained billions of pounds worth of unfunded tax cuts, shook market confidence in the UK government’s ability to manage the economy.

Intended as a lynchpin of the Truss/Kwarteng platform, it rapidly began to dissolve.

After announcing the plans, Mr Kwarteng indicated more plans to cut taxes without forecasts.

This led to interest rates on government debts soaring, putting certain pension funds at risk.

It was not long before the U-turns started.

During the Conservative Party conference, the government had to announce a planned removal of the 45p tax rate would not go ahead.

Mr Kwarteng cut short a trip to the US before he was sacked by Ms Truss, before Jeremy Hunt was installed as his replacement.

Mr Hunt completed the funeral rites for the mini-budget, before Ms Truss resigned amid acrimony in the Tory party over fracking and the way the government was run.

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