, Columnist
Britain Has a Cunning Plan to Cut Its Borrowing Costs
Rachel Reeves is picking up the bills.
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images EuropeRachel Reeves has had a rough first 18 months as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer with very little going to plan. One persistent bugbear is that Britain’s borrowing costs still carry a so-called “moron premium” — ascribed for political ineptitude — above its developed-world peers.
With yearly interest payments of £110 billion ($150 billion), the stubbornly high yield on gilts is seriously restricting her fiscal wiggle room. Time to get creative then.