MNI BRIEF: Gilts Key As Next UK PM Truss Prepares Energy Aid

The UK’s next prime minister, Liz Truss, is expected to lay out plans in the coming days to help millions of households with soaring energy bills, with gilt investors also keen to see details of additional heavy borrowing, particularly at a time when the Bank of England is set to become a net seller of government bonds. (See MNI INSIGHT: BOE QT Pace Known, Terminal Point Unknowable)

Truss beat former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in a poll of the party membership by a margin of 57% to 43%, and will succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister on Tuesday. Truss, who indicated in her acceptance speech that the next national elections would be in 2024, had earlier finished second in a July poll of Conservative MPs, behind Sunak.

Sterling and gilts were little moved after the news, which was widely expected.