A sale of British government bonds has failed to attract enough bids for the amount on offer for the first time since 2002.
The Debt Management Office said the sale of £1.75 billion of 40-year bonds attracted bids totalling just £1.63 billion.
That marked the first time in seven years that demand for British debt has not outstripped supply.
Analysts said that since UK inflation was relatively high, and investors were wary of buying debt that would not mature for four decades, the auction result was not unexpected.
Bond sales are an essential part of government financing and there have been concerns that as countries raise more funds from the market to fund stimulus and bank bail-out programmes, investors could become more reluctant to buy.
If that were to happen on a wider basis, governments would have to offer higher rates of returns on the bonds - effectively paying investors more - which would increase their own costs and debt burden.
