Britain’s Gross Domestic Product to National Debt ratio is now the fourth worst in the world, and only three places behind Zimbabwe, new figures have revealed.
The Office for National Statistics has revealed in updated figures that Britain's debt now officially stands at £2.3 trillion, and not the £1 trillion earlier reported.The reason for the increase, the ONS said, was that the figures included the bankster bailouts for the first time.
Liabilities of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group on the Government’s balance sheet had added £1.3 trillion to the UK's net debt.
The figures for Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley were already in the figures, so the addition of the RBS' and Lloyds' figures pushed the total debt to £2.32 trillion.
Incredibly, this is equivalent to 154 percent of Britain’s entire national output, which pushes the UK into the fourth most worse off country in the world.
Only the territory of St Kitts and Nevis (185 percent), Japan (196 percent) and Zimbabwe (241 percent) are now worse off than Britain.
Britain’s borrowing to keep afloat reached a record high in November last year, when £23.3 billion was borrowed from the mysterious, always unnamed, and seemingly deep-pocketed “international money market.”
According to Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, the “numbers are broadly on track to hit the borrowing target this year,” but warned that this would be “a bit historic as people are now focusing on what will happen if the economy turns out to be growing less strongly than expected.”
Confirming earlier reports that the private sector was slowing down and that this could affect recovery, Mr Loynes said that “if growth is significantly slower than forecast this year and running into next year, it will not only result in higher public borrowing but it also raises questions over the wisdom of such sharp cuts in public spending when the recovery is in a relatively early stage."
In addition, government spending cuts, supposedly being made to “save the economy” after it was wrecked by the old gang parties, are beginning to destroy the private sector as well.
Experts in the construction sector confirmed that the ability of the private sector to grow effectively — which is crucial to the ConDem regime’s ‘recovery’ plans — is being crushed by the ripple effects of the spending review.
According to an article in the latest Electrical Times, construction intelligence company Glenigan has reported that “cuts in government spending are having an adverse effect on projects in the health, education and other public sector projects.”
Quoting Glenigan’s economics director, Allan Wilen, the magazine said that “a combination of reduced government activity and a sluggish housing market has hampered the recovery in private sector activity.
“December's severe weather conditions compounded the downturn leaving the value of underlying projects starts during the three months to December 29 percent down on a year earlier,” Mr Wilen was quoted as saying.
“The sharp drop 3.3% in construction output during the final quarter of 2010 also confirms the findings of Glenigan's own research, which has seen a sharp fall in the value of new projects starting on site.”
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