Faisal Islam Profile picture
Oct 12, 2022 18 tweets 6 min read Read on X
NEW

Morning from DC where Chancellor arrived a few hours ago…

- 20Y gilt yields (effective Govt borrowing costs) just topped 5% again 5.02 for first time since Bank of England first intervened after mini Budget…after Bailey hard line message
- shock August GDP fall
Not sure I buy the idea that there’s private reassurance the bond buying programme will prolong. Bailey not only volunteered the “you have 3 days” comments, he then when asked for reassurance by the BBC outside, reiterated it unprompted, on camera…
BUT..
What there is into next week is a Temporary Expanded Collateral Repo Facility (TECRF)… which will help banks to help those LDI funds with liquidity, which many in the market thought was the appropriate tool to deal with this anyway…
What there isnt - and tried to make this clear in every bit of reporting - is a threat to DB pensioners…

Their pensions are guaranteed in law by the sponsoring company.

rise in interest rates actually helps long term position, but post mini budget stresses are s-term challenge
So there is a Mexican stand off as I see it between these funds that chose to indulge in some leveraged wizardry in the gilt market, and suffered when gilt yields surged so fast, at record speed after mini budget, and BoE, over selling now at losses
🚨 Bank of England confirm in a statement what I said above and on air yesterday…

Gilt purchases “will end on 14th October” as “has been made absolutely clear in contact with the banks at senior levels”.

New repo facility in place to help with liquidity pressures for the LDIs
NEW Twenty year gilt just reached 5.036% - so now above effective borrowing cost reached in aftermath of mini budget, highest level since June 2008
NEW

this 20 year gilt was one type of Government borrowing the BoE was willing to buy (up until Friday) as part of its emergency operations… its now at 5.07% - highest level since May 2004, ie for over 18 years
NEW

30 year gilt now also above 5% again for first time since post mini budget BoE intervention. A little lower than the high then..
NEW:
Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill:

Mini Budget “will add to inflationary pressure coming from energy guarantee”and

“volatile market dynamics that followed announcement of Growth Plan underline the need to bolster the credibility of wider institutional framework”
think that’s the seventh time the Bank of England has clearly linked the mini budget or UK specific factors to the bond market turmoil, including the Governor on camera to a room full of the world’s top banking CEOs, whose chair thanked Bailey for his leadership in this “crisis”
🚨

Bank of England warns on Govt fiscal policy…

chief economist Huw Pill:

“Main macroeconomic risk” from energy surge is now not inflation but “greater pressure on the fiscal deficit and ultimately the public finances more widely”
“Key” that policy “does not bring longer-term sustainability of the public finances or respect for wider institutional framework for macroeconomic policy into question both in & of itself, but also because maintaining credibility & integrity of framework supports monetary policy”
And Pill refers to my story from before mini budget about OBR offer to do forecast with it being turned down:

“It is welcome that role played by the OBR in scrutinising the Governments fiscal plans will be resumed in the forthcoming Budget statement” will help “add stability”
NEW

UK 30 year yields - have now gone above the post mini budget high, which triggered the Bank’s emergency action - at 5.095% looks to me like the highest level since August 1998, since the creation of Bank independence and the golden fiscal rules under Blair/Brown
Fallen back now below 5% after the Bank of England bought £2bn of bonds in its auction.
My blog from the IMF in Washington where the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has just gone into a meeting with G7 finance minister meeting. There will be questions, around the table, I’m told. bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
NEW
On #BBCNewsTen coming up live from the G7 finance ministers, the Chancellor’s debut on world stage, and I speak to both Mark Carney and Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe

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More from @faisalislam

Jun 5
Coutinho co-opting the Treasury Permanent Secretary into backing idea that Labour will raise taxes by thousands…

All this arises because the OBR (unlike its equivalent in Ireland, Australia the US, the CBO) is prevented from doing comparable truly independent costings…
This whole “debate” is, for now, rather absurd, as next week we will get the actual policies in manifestos, the parties’ own assumptions and separate truly independent numbers on the implications for tax, spend & borrowing from the likes of the IFS & Niesr.
The Treasury Permanent Secretary who Coutinho deployed this morning to defend the £38bn/ £2k claim wrote to the Opposition to say it “should not be presented as having been produced by civil service”… this could be problematic…
Read 6 tweets
May 20
Looks like a major “announcement” on energy bills is imminent … another @politicalpics long lens scoop… Big Six have been briefed … something to do with the energy price cap adjustment (cut) from July (coming by Friday), further policy on smart meters (rollout has stalled)
”Note we do not necessarily want their advocacy as consumer trust is so low in suppliers that if a package of this kind is backed by them then consumers will instinctively regard it as not in their best interests” the memo says of the Big Six energy providers
Logically, some sort of announcement that builds on the inflation fall (energy driven) on Wednesday and the further fall in the cap on Friday, to promote the idea that the cost of living crisis is behind us, but something not all the energy companies will back - perhaps rolling back some of the green additions ???
Read 6 tweets
Mar 8
1 in 4 Scottish adults on anti-depressants doctor just told Amol on @BBCr4today re inactivity…

Can’t find directly comparable England stat … but NHS England business data says there were 8.6m patients prescribed antidepressants in 22/23 (up from 6.8m in 2015)… 19% of adults
Thanks followers - the doc did say 1 in 5, and the fact is here from NHS business data … 8.6m antidepressant prescriptions out of an adult population of 45 million… 5.6m women, 2.9m men. Up from 2015 6.8m prescriptions/ 43m population… (1 in 6)

these numbers seem astonishing. Image
By age
English children on prescribed antidepressants, including a handful of toddlers - big spike up is for teenage girls… Image
Read 5 tweets
Jan 19
Epic Davos buzz thread -

1. Leading African figures told me privately that Kagame’s clear frustration with the UK-Rwanda deal, communicated to me “it’s UK’s problem” & “have money back” also reflect eyebrows being raised in other African nations about general look for a man who likes to be seen as the modern leader of a confident Africa, and who may have clocked that it may be reversing his considerable investments in nation-branding (sponsoring PL footy teams) etc. Watch this space. Here’s my iPhone video…
2. Remember, there are two sides to this deal:

I got a note from a very connected commentator after my doorstep: “It's a really bad look for him. He knows that the whole point of this policy is to make the UK govt look tough on migrants, on the grounds that Rwanda is presumptively a terrible place to be sent to. It puts the Rwanda country brand back like 20 years. … the only thing people associate with the country is "the worst place the Brits can think to send people"….
Context here - some real buzz about Africa jumping value chains, not just producing minerals but the finished products the world needs and doing so within a massive new free trade area…Image
3. Heard an interesting theory from business leader Brits out here… the autumn election promise is a feint, and earlier (May?) will happen as a result of the “shock” of the ECHR (possibly?) quashing the Rwanda policy and fought on that basis, with an attempt to reenergise Brexit vibes… if that’s even half true… then worth noting that Ireland has just formally lodged its ECHR case against the UK on Troubles Legacy Act… oh… and coming up imminently on @BBCNews is my interview with the Taoiseach covering this topic…Image
Read 8 tweets
Nov 21, 2023
NEW

Governor Bailey says the risk on inflation “remains on the upside” when talking to MPs… backdrop to the Autumn Statement push to declare a turning point - MPC member Catherine Mann also suggests rates should be higher, because of continuing price and wage pressures …
Mann: inflation forecast points to not hitting 2% inflation target until mid 2026
🚨
Bailey:
“Market is putting too much weight on current data releases” showing “inflation come down quite rapidly”… we are “concerned” about “potential persistence” of inflation as “we go through remainder of journey down to 2% and I think the market is underestimating this”…
Read 9 tweets
Nov 1, 2023
extraordinary testimony from Dep Cabinet Sec Mcnamara, about “jovial tone” and “breezy confidence” of PM Johnson in face of Italian “overreacting” re first European Covid wave even there was “laughing at the Italians”…

at time Italian docs implored Brits to learn its lessons
There was definitely some lobby briefing at the time with some sneering at the Italians - which I recall being really rather revealing, because my medical family were recirculating accounts from Italian doctor friends repeatedly warning UK to take advantage of headstart eg below
The point was, of course, that the Italians had much more critical care capacity than the NHS
Read 6 tweets

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