UK debt exceeds 2 billion pounds
The National Statistical Office assured that this is the first time that the threshold of 100% with respect to GDP has been exceeded
The UK public debt climbed last July to £ 2,004 trillion, exceeding this threshold for the first time and raising the debt-to-GDP ratio to 100.5%, the first time it exceeded the 100% threshold from fiscal year 1960-61, according to the National Statistical Office (ONS).
In July, the public deficit reached 26.7 billion pounds, below the negative imbalance of 29.5 billion pounds in June, although it represents the fourth largest monthly deficit in the entire historical series, which dates back to 1993.
Thus, in the first four months of fiscal year 2020-21, which began in April, the United Kingdom’s public deficit rose to 150.5 billion pounds, representing an increase of 128.4 billion pounds over the same period of 2019 and the largest negative imbalance in the entire historical series between the months of April and July.
“The coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the deficit,” acknowledged the British statistical office, highlighting that the indebtedness of the first four months of fiscal year 2020-21 practically tripled that assumed in the entire previous fiscal year, which it amounted to 56.6 billion pounds.
The British economy, the second largest in Europe, suffered a historic drop in activity between April and June with a 20.4% drop in GDP compared to the three previous months, when it had registered a 2.2% contraction, confirming thus its entry into recession for the first time since 2009.
K. Tovar
Source: DW
