Chancellor George Osborne has postponed selling off the government’s remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group because of instabilities in the global financial markets.
Chancellor George Osborne has postponed selling off the government’s remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group because of instabilities in the global financial markets.
The New Year has seen a stock market crash in China, falling oil prices and shrinking world trade.
The public’s stake in the bank is currently just below 10% after a series of sell-offs last year.
Osborne said: “I want to create a share-owning democracy. It’s also my responsibility to ensure economic responsibility so with these turbulent financial markets now is not the right time to have that sale.
“We will sell Lloyds to the British people but we will do so when the time is right.”
Selling off the public’s financial stake in Lloyds was a general election pledge made by David Cameron and was expected to raise £2bn.
Last week Clayton Euro Risk chief executive Tony Ward reassured the mortgage market to continue as normal in the face of global turmoil.
He said: “It looks doom and gloom and cataclysmic but there’s always a risk the markets are overreacting: It’s what they do. They see a steep correction and negative sentiment and trade on that sentiment.
“The International Monetary Fund is still reasonably positive for the UK globally you have to say that despite all their news investors have to put their money to work somewhere and I would still say the UK is not a bad place to be.
“It would be very tempting to say we’re going to have a crash. I’m saying we’re not; that’s not to say we don’t have problems.”
