# Rubbish Check: Global borrowing costs hit fresh highs on oil, AI and inflation > Source: > Published: 2026-08-18 23:07:22+00:00 In short Rubbish Talk rates BBC Business's headline that global borrowing costs hit fresh highs "on oil, AI and inflation" a 2/10 because the drivers named are accurately drawn from the article's own reporting, though the headline drops the government-debt/fiscal-policy driver the piece itself flags in its opening line. The Verdict Lightly altered. The headline is a fair, unsensational summary of a genuinely analytical piece: oil, inflation and AI are all real drivers discussed at length with named analysts on the record. The one drift from the base fact is an omission, not a distortion: the article's own opening sentence lists "government debt levels" as a third concern alongside inflation and AI, yet that fiscal/spending angle, which Capital Economics and Oxford Economics treat as a major factor, doesn't make the headline's shortlist. ## What actually happened Long-term government bond yields rose across major economies, with the US 30-year hitting 5.33%, its highest since June 2007, and UK 30-year debt reaching 5.85%. The article attributes this to a mix of rising Brent crude prices near $90 a barrel amid Middle East tensions, inflation fears that follow from higher oil, elevated government debt and fiscal concerns, and uncertainty over the scale and payback timeline of AI investment. ## Key facts - US 30-year Treasury yield: 5.33%, the highest level since June 2007. - UK 30-year gilt yield: 5.85% (no explicit "record" framing given for this figure in the body, unlike the US number). - Brent crude: surpassed $90/barrel, linked to Trump's threat to bomb Oman over Strait of Hormuz talks. - Capital Economics named the US, UK, France, Italy and Japan as seeing the largest rises, citing "problematic" fiscal outlooks, and explicitly said this is not a "bond market crisis". - Oxford Economics' John Canavan cited a "record pace" of US corporate borrowing tied to AI and data-centre build-out as a separate yield driver. ## What to watch for Watch whether the "record" framing extends beyond the US 30-year to the UK, German and Japanese figures with actual comparator data, since the article only quantifies the record claim for the US. Also watch for how Andy Burnham's fiscal-rules commitments affect UK gilt pricing in coming weeks, and whether AI-linked corporate bond issuance keeps accelerating or cools.