Marcus Ashworth, Columnist

Britain Is Going on a Massive Debt Spree

Boris Johnson's government might sell about 300 billion pounds of Gilts in this financial year. He's lucky to have a Treasury and central bank in lockstep.

April 1, 2020 at 9:01 AM UTC

By Marcus Ashworth

Marcus Ashworth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European markets. Previously, he was chief markets strategist for Haitong Securities in London.

Spend, spend, spend.
Photographer: WPA Pool/Getty Images Europe

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The U.K. Debt Management Office (DMO) has put out a signal of intent: More government bond supply is about to come thick and fast. The amount of gilts to be sold in April will be raised from 20 billion pounds ($22 billion) to 45 billion pounds.

Boris Johnson’s government needs swift access to more funding to support the economy during the coronavirus shutdown. The good news is the bond market can handle it with ease, even in a market environment like this one. It helps enormously that the U.K. Treasury and the Bank of England are working in lockstep to deal with the financial side of the Covid-19 crisis.