The accumulated British debt stood at 98.7% of GDP in November

By: MRT Desk

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The accumulated British debt stood at 98.7% of GDP in November

The accumulated debt of the United Kingdom stood at the end of last November at 2.47 trillion pounds (2.81 trillion euros), equivalent to 98.7% of gross domestic product (GDP), reported Wednesday the Office for National Statistics (ONS, for its acronym in English).

This figure represents a decrease of 0.3 percentage points of GDP compared to the same month of the previous year, indicates the ONS.

The United Kingdom borrowed last November by 22,000 million pounds (about 25,080 million euros), 13,900 million pounds (15,846 million euros) more than in the same month of 2021, the highest indebtedness for a month of November since 1993.

Analysts expected borrowing in November to be 21,000 million pounds (23,940 million euros).

After learning about the debt, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said in a statement on Wednesday that, in the face of global emergencies due to the covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, “we have taken significant steps to support millions of businesses and families here in the UK.”

“We have a clear plan to help halve inflation next year, but that requires some tough decisions to get our public finances back on a sustainable footing,” he said.

Last week, the Bank of England announced an interest rate hike of 0.50 percentage points to 3.5%, its highest level in 14 years, as part of its plan to reduce inflation, which stood at 10.7% in November, compared to 11.1% in October – still at 40-year highs.

The monetary policy committee of the British issuing bank voted by a majority of 6 to 3 to apply the increase, considering that “evidence of inflationary pressures persists”, with a “tight” labor market and the economy in recession.

Inflation is high due to rising electricity and gas prices, as well as food prices.

In addition, inflation is well above the 2% that the Bank of England has set as a target, which led the entity to arrange several increases in interest rates in 2022.

Due to the sharp increase in the cost of living, various sectors, including railway workers, post workers, nurses or those in charge of handling luggage at airports, have called strikes in demand of labor improvements, which has deepened the crisis that the United Kingdom is going through.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which oversees the UK’s public accounts, recently estimated that inflation could fall to 7.4% in 2023.

Although the UK will have to wait until January to know the latest official gross domestic product (GDP) data to know the state of the economy, Hunt recently indicated that the UK has entered into recession.

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