After yesterday's well received auction of £2bn worth of 30 year government bonds, today saw another success with an - arguably - more important offer.
The £4bn auction of 2015 gilts was covered more than twice - 2.33 times in fact - at an average yield of 2.796%. The previous three auctions of this gilt have all seen bid/covers in excess of two times, but these took place while the Bank of England's quantitative easing programme was in place. The five year gilt is more attractive to overseas investors, including central banks, than yesterday's 30 year gilt, which appeals in the main to pension funds and insurance companies. There had been some concern that recent falls in sterling could deter central banks from taking part today, but the fears seem to have been unfounded.
A successful series of debt auctions is a key part of the government's plans to finance measures to pull the economy out of its longest recession on record, in the face of a budget deficit that totals 12% of GDP, about £180bn.
The June gilt is down around 8 ticks at 114.46 after the auction. Meanwhile sterling has picked up against both the dollar and euro after a stronger than expected services sector survey for February.
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