Local councils of England, meet negative yields

Summary:
A world of record-low rates has created an entire club of governments and public sector bodies currently being paid to borrow from the bond market, from Germany to the European Investment Bank.Late last week, that club got an inconspicuous new member -- none other than Redbridge Council, one of the 24 councils in Greater London, which has just borrowed £75m at a negative real yield.Despite the heavy focus on negative yields, there has been less scrutiny of what the proceeds are spent on -- the amounts are usually lost in the vast expenditure across national accounts.Redbridge’s borrowed money is expected to be spent on “capital expenditure” -- more granular details were not provided in the announcement. However, the council just last month unveiled plans to spend £45m on buying housing

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