By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday rejected options by Republican senators that the Treasury is intentionally growing issuance of short-term Treasury payments at larger rates of interest to attempt to stimulate the economic system forward of the November presidential election.

Yellen advised a U.S. Senate subcommittee listening to that Treasury’s mixture of debt issuance, regardless of the next share of short-term payments for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, is according to historic norms and with the recommendation of market individuals within the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee.

“To begin with, let me say that we by no means time the market. A tenet of Treasury debt administration is that issuance needs to be common and predictable, and that is acceptable over time,” Yellen stated.

Republican Senator John Kennedy and Invoice Hagerty criticized Yellen for issuing debt at larger rates of interest amid an inverted yield curve. Presently the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury word is 4.33%, in comparison with 5.4% on the three-month Treasury invoice.

Kennedy accused Yellen of intentionally boosting short-term debt to spur development throughout an election yr, suggesting this was placing downward stress on long-term charges.

“You are paying 5 % to borrow cash, when you could possibly pay 4 % to borrow cash,” Kennedy stated. “You are working at cross functions with (Federal Reserve Chair) Jay Powell. And the rationale you are doing that is to attempt to give the economic system a sugar excessive 5 months earlier than the election,” he stated.

Yellen replied: “There’s nothing about issuing quick time period debt that creates a sugar excessive for the economic system.”

She advised the senator that market individuals anticipate that quick time period charges will fall to considerably below 4.5%, so locking in debt for 10 years at present charges would probably lead to larger long-term borrowing prices than the present path.

“We now have a coverage that we need to maintain the issuance of quick time period payments according to the suggestions of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee,” Yellen stated, referring to the group of major sellers that advises Treasury on debt issuance plans.