UK minister denies billions wasted over rising interest rates

A British minister on Friday denied a claim that the Treasury’s decision not to insure against Bank of England interest-rate rises had cost taxpayers £ 11 billion ($ 13.7 billion) during a cost-of-living crisis.

‘The Treasury has inaccurately been accused of wasting billions of pounds,’ John Glen, a junior treasury minister working for finance minister Rishi Sunak, wrote on Twitter.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said Sunak had not insured against the recent rate hikes on £ 900 billion of cash stimulus created by the Bank of England to prop up the UK economy before and after the pandemic.

The BoE and other central banks worldwide are raising interest rates to try to rein in soaring inflation.

NIESR director Jagjit Chadha said the Treasury had been left ‘with an enormous bill and heavy continuing exposure to interest rate risk’, as the BoE prepares to raise its key interest rate again next week.