UK debt 2 trillion, UK government spending on virus measures pushes

UK debt 2 trillion, UK government spending on virus measures pushes.

UK government debt has risen above £2 trillion for the first time amid heavy spending to support the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Spending on measures such as the furlough scheme means the debt figure now equals the value of everything the UK produces in a year.

Total debt hit £2.004tn in July, £227.6bn more than last year, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Economists warned the situation would worsen before improving.

It is the first time debt has been above 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) since the 1960-61 financial year, the ONS said.

Public sector net debt

The July borrowing figure - the difference between spending and tax income - was £26.7bn, down from a revised £29.5bn in June.

It was the fourth highest borrowing in any month since records began in 1993. The three higher figures were the previous three months.

Those are big figures. What do they mean?

Ruth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said July's borrowing figure was "another huge sum and pushes borrowing in the year to date to £150.5bn".

"That is close to the deficit for the whole of 2009-10 of £158.3bn, which was previously the largest cash deficit in history, reflecting the extraordinary fiscal support the government has put in place to see the economy through the crisis."

Public sector net borrowing

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: "This crisis has put the public finances under significant strain as we have seen a hit to our economy and taken action to support millions of jobs, businesses and livelihoods.

"Without that support, things would have been far worse.

"Today's figures are a stark reminder that we must return our public finances to a sustainable footing over time, which will require taking difficult decisions." 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sturgis COVID, South Dakota officials warn of COVID-19 exposure (Details)

 Sturgis COVID, South Dakota officials warn of COVID-19 exposure (Details). South Dakota health officials warned Thursday that a number of people who attended the 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this month, including some who came from out of state, have come down with COVID-19. Department of Health officials did not give an exact number of rallygoers who tested positive, but they said it was under 25. The rally, which ended Sunday, brought hundreds of thousands of people from far and wide to the city in the western part of the state. Even before it kicked off, some locals and officials expressed concern that COVID-19 could spread rapidly at the rally and that it would be hard to track rallygoers who got infected before heading home. The state's health department has received reports from other states that people who traveled from the rally have tested positive, state epidemiologist Josh Clayton said. Contact tracers have been able to work with most people to determine who the
Read more

Kayaker message in a bottle 1985 floating in a Delaware river

 Kayaker message in a bottle 1985 floating in a Delaware river. A kayaker who discovered a message in a bottle floating in a Delaware river was able to reunite the letter with the woman who wrote it 35 years ago. Brad Wachsmuth thought the bottle bobbing in the water about 2 miles (3 kilometers) offshore of the Broadkill River was a piece of trash when he spotted it Aug. 8, just a few days after Tropical Storm Isaias swept through the area, WBOC-TV reported. “As we usually do as kayakers, we try to pick up trash out of the water when we can," he told the station this week. But Wachsmuth's friend noticed there was something inside, and the two fished out the letter written by Cathi Riddle and her cousin, Stacey Wells, dated 35 years ago — Aug. 1, 1985. It described their family pets and asked potential future readers if they had any of their own, among other childhood musings. Wachsmuth brought the letter to the Milton Historical Society and a curator reached out to family
Read more