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		</div><p>The British Treasury has sold the first tranche of shares in Royal Bank of Scotland for £2.1 billion, but the taxpayer has made a loss of around £1 billion on the sale.</p>
<p>UK Financial Investments, the body that holds the Government’s RBS stake, said it had offloaded 5.4% of RBS at 330p a share – far short of the 502p price paid by the Government when it bailed out the bank at the height of the financial crisis.</p>
<p>The move has reduced the Government’s stake in the group from 78.3% to around 72.9%.</p>
<p>Chancellor George Osborne said the #2.1 billion would be used to pay down Britain&#8217;s national debt.</p>
<p>He said: “This is an important first step in returning the bank to private ownership, which is the right thing to do for the taxpayer and for British businesses: it will promote financial stability, lead to a more competitive banking sector, and support the interests of the wider economy.”</p>
<p>Labour has raised concerns over the Government’s rush to offload its stake in RBS when the shares are still languishing below the bailout price paid.</p>
<p>A previous report by investment bank Rothschild said that, if all of the Government’s stake was sold at current prices, the taxpayer would lose around £7 billion.</p>
<p>However, UKFI estimates that the RBS share price will rise as the firm returns to health and more stock is sold to the market.</p>
<p>Mr Osborne said: “The right thing to do for the economy and for taxpayers is to start selling off our stake”.</p>
<p>He added in a tweet that he had the backing of Bank of England governor Mark Carney for the move.</p>
<p>Mr Osborne said on Twitter: “RBS bailed out by last gov. This gov is selling it back. Bank of England Governor says selling now is in ’interests of the wider economy’.”</p>
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