London: Britain’s government debt has crossed two thousand billion pounds (about 2,600 billion dollars) for the first time. This is due to the massive borrowing to support the economy in the wake of the Corona Virus epidemic. The National Statistics Office said on Friday that the government took loans of £ 26.7 billion in July, the fourth-largest borrowing amount of any month since the beginning of record-keeping in 1993. This increased the debt to £ 2,004 billion. The rise in debt also marks the first time that Britain’s total debt has exceeded its total economic output value.
Now Britain’s debt has reached 100.5 per cent of its annual gross domestic product (GDP). This is the first time since 1961 that Britain’s debt has exceeded 100 percent of GDP. This deterioration in public financial situation has been largely due to the support schemes that the government has launched in the last few months to deal with the economic shock of the epidemic. The UK economy has already fallen by about 20 per cent due to the epidemic.
UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said, “The crisis has put public finances in trouble. We have tried to manage our economy and have taken measures to support millions of jobs, businesses and livelihoods. Without that support, things would go awry. ” The statistics agency said retail sales grew by 3.6 percent monthly and are now up 3 percent from pre-epidemic levels.
