Since the global financial crisis of 2007-08, debt has been one of the main issues facing the UK economy, from the private sector debts which caused the crisis, to the impact the crisis has had on UK government debt.
This briefing looks at ten key facts about debt in the UK:
- A quarter of UK government debt is owed to the UK government itself
- Three-quarters of UK government debt is owed to people and institutions in the UK
- Of G7 economies, only Germany has a lower government debt (as a proportion of GDP) than the UK
- The UK government can currently borrow at the cheapest interest rates in its history
- The UK government is paying virtually the lowest amount of interest on its debt in recorded history, as a proportion of GDP
- UK government tax revenue (as a proportion of GDP) is the third lowest of G7 countries, and well behind other European countries
- The debt of the UK’s private sector is more than four times as big as that of the government
- Unsecured personal debt in the UK is rising rapidly
- The UK economy has the largest deficit with the rest of the world of any rich country
- The UK’s finance sector is the most exposed to a crisis of any G7 economy
Read the full briefing here.