Britain's national debt rises above £1 trillion to hit a 19-year high

[Doggy Styles]

Nope, but the Govt makes it sound as if they are going to be reducing debts rather than hoping there will be no deficit soon

'A Treasury spokesman said: “Today’s data shows that the forecast for 2011-12 is on track, with public borrowing down by £11 billion compared to the previous year. This shows that the Government’s plan to reduce the budget deficit is working.”'

True, you could misinterpret that to mean public debt down rather than new public borrowing. But to do so you'd have to have not understood the rest of the article.

[lilelvis2000]

Without growth - we can all forget about debt reduction. Unless we start really cutting back services.

Having both negligable growth and high taxation is a double whammy. And the latter will kill the former.

[BrilloPad]

Nope, but the Govt makes it sound as if they are going to be reducing debts rather than hoping there will be no deficit soon

Isn't that their job? To tell us everything is fine.

[AtW]

Going by a few threads in recent weeks, there are some on here who do not understand that you can have a rising debt and a decreasing deficit at the same time, I was hoping you weren't one of them.

Nope, but the Govt makes it sound as if they are going to be reducing debts rather than hoping there will be no deficit soon

[BrilloPad]

That debt is entirely expected, and will continue rising while we have a deficit. Hence the efforts to reduce the deficit, and one day eliminate it.

Going by a few threads in recent weeks, there are some on here who do not understand that you can have a rising debt and a decreasing deficit at the same time, I was hoping you weren't one of them.

Indeed. I remember a comment in the guardian asking why the coalition wented to pay back the national debt over the lifetime of this parliament!

[Scoobos]

GDP figure is bollocks.

Even more reason to ignore the IMF, the current government and anyone else banging the Austerity drum.

Governments and countries need to be measured on something like a "Standard Of Living" - not a GDP figure.

[Doggy Styles]

GDP figure is bollocks.

It's like say for debt purposes turnover of company is the most important indicator, it's not.

What's important is ability to repay those debts which for companies means making profits and for states means NOT having budget deficit.

That debt is entirely expected, and will continue rising while we have a deficit. Hence the efforts to reduce the deficit, and one day eliminate it.

Going by a few threads in recent weeks, there are some on here who do not understand that you can have a rising debt and a decreasing deficit at the same time, I was hoping you weren't one of them.

[MarillionFan]

Agreed. And the UK can just print it. Luckily we did not join the Euro as you wanted to.

No I didn't.

[BrilloPad]

What's important is ability to repay those debts

Agreed. And the UK can just print it. Luckily we did not join the Euro as you wanted to.

[AtW]

The figures are irrelevant, its the percentage of GDP that matters.

GDP figure is bollocks.

It's like say for debt purposes turnover of company is the most important indicator, it's not.

What's important is ability to repay those debts which for companies means making profits and for states means NOT having budget deficit.

[Scoobos]

The figures are irrelevant, its the percentage of GDP that matters.

It's all a scam, in the name of destroying the state's liabilities.

The graphs here are very interesting:

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_debt

If you see here, we'll see that at a time where our "national debt" was the highest, we reduced it by social incentives and also that we are lower than we've been for decades.

Austerity is just another word for "Increasing Shareholder Returns and decreasing Costs for Multinational Corporations" - and a vain effort by governments around the world to try convince themselves that they still have power to set policy in their own right. (Corporate interests have dictated policy for years IMO).

<End liberalist spam>

[MarillionFan]

Do we have a credit limit?

MBNA do a good balance transfer deal.

[BigTime]

Do we have a credit limit?

[AtW]

Britain’s public finances deteriorated further with £18.2m of public sector borrowing in the final month of the fiscal year, higher than the £16bn forecast by economists. It was also higher than the £18bn the Government borrowed in March last year.

Despite the depleted coffers in March, full-year borrowing came in exactly at £126bn, which was the Budget estimate from the UK’s official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility.

It was £11bn lower than borrowing in 2010-11, providing relief for the Chancellor who has repeatedly restated his commitment to austerity in an attempt to drive down the deficit and preserve Britain’s AAA credit rating.

A Treasury spokesman said: “Today’s data shows that the forecast for 2011-12 is on track, with public borrowing down by £11 billion compared to the previous year. This shows that the Government’s plan to reduce the budget deficit is working.”

The March figure would have pushed borrowing above the full-year target, but the ONS revised down its estimate of borrowing in February to £12.2bn from £15.2bn.

In reality there was little to cheer about in the detail of the data as Britain’s national debt rose above the £1 trillion mark to £1.02 trillion in March, which was equivalent to 66pc of GDP and the highest since records began in 1993.

Economists say the Government will have a tougher task meeting forecasts to reduce borrowing to £120bn in the current financial year as the economy struggles and unemployment rises, which will hurt its tax revenues and increase benefits payments.

Samuel Tombs, an economist at Capital Economics, said: "March's public finance figures suggest that the trend in the UK's fiscal position is continuing to worsen.

Source: Osborne hits £126bn borrowing target despite March rise - Telegraph