Government reduces stake in Lloyds to below 4%

The latest sales, conducted via the trading plan, mean the government has recovered over £19 billion of the £20.3 billion taxpayers injected into Lloyds during the financial crisis.

Economists predicted that the strong results would help the Bank to return to private ownership this year.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Kirby, said: "Since the decision to sell the government’s stake in Lloyds we have now recovered over £19 billion for the taxpayer.

"Lloyds’ strong annual results show that we are in a good position to continue to reduce our shareholding and recover all of the money the tax-payer injected into the bank during the financial crisis."

Speaking yesterday, Laith Khalaf, Senior Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, commented: "It looks like the taxpayer is at least going to break even on the bailout, and may well make a profit. The Lloyds share price has jumped on the back of these latest results, which bodes well for the remaining shares that the government is yet to sell."

Helal Miah, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, added: "The profit will undoubtedly be a boost to the British government, given that it hopes to restore Lloyds to full private ownership in the next few months after the bank was bailed out by the tax payer in the 2008 financial crisis."