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The British Government has hired Barclays, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and RBS to sell a bumper £5 billion of gilts this week.
It is the first syndication since 2005 and is part of a record £220 billion the Treasury aims to raise this year to fund its ballooning budget deficit.
The sale is expected to be launched tomorrow and will be seen as a test of how much confidence global investors have in the British economy, and how much appetite there is to buy government bonds.
Monument Securities analyst Stephen Lewis said: "The Debt Management Office will need all the help it can get to take these bonds to the market successfully."
Meanwhile, the head of the International Monetary Fund today warned the worst of the global economic crisis may be yet to come. Speaking of the Group of Eight industrialised nations' forecasts, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said: "The G8's stance is that we are beginning to see some green shoots but we have to be cautious. The large part of the worst is not yet behind us."
The pound and the euro lost more than a cent as investors switched back into the dollar. Oil prices dipped as the dollar soared.
