The government debt of the UK has gone up to a record breaking £1 trillion from £883 billion from the past year.
Even when this is the current figure, Chancellor George Osborne is still determined to attain his borrowing goal this financial year of £127 billion. The total for the year is at £103.3 billion.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the government tax receipts have been given a boost by the bank levy. This was enforced on various financial institutions in order to recover some of the expenses during the economic crisis.
There was a VAT increase this January – from 17.5 percent to 20 percent – which increased the tax take as well.
The expenses of the central government declined by 0.9 percent as debt reduction plans have been implemented.
At the moment, the net debt total of £1.004 trillion is equivalent to 64.2 percent of the gross domestic product of the country.
According to a spokesman from the Treasury, “Our national debt has reached more than one trillion pounds simply shows the unsustainable level of spending this country built up over the past few years, and shows why it is critical for our nation’s future that we deal decisively with the deficit. Today’s figures show that we are making good progress, with borrowing over £11bn lower than in the same period last year.”
However, according to Vicky Redwood from Capital Economics, “It is a reminder of the enormity of the challenge that still lies ahead to get the public finances back on a sustainable footing.”
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