Speeches

Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the UK’s outstanding public debt obligations are to China.

Harriett Baldwin

The majority of the government’s public debt is financed through the issuance of UK government bonds, known as ‘gilts’. Information on sectoral holdings of gilts is published on a quarterly basis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The latest figures show that £426.9 billion of gilts (25.9% of the total stock) is held by overseas investors, of which £73.3 billion is held by foreign central banks. The government does not hold detailed information on the identity of foreign central banks or other individual investors holding these gilts.