Britain slumps another £10bn into the red

[empip]

Don't panic - just yet.

I believe GB debt is mainly long term whereas some other countries are into disastrous short term debt.

...Since 2008, National Debt has increased sharply because of:
Economics Recession (lower tax receipts, higher spending on unemployment benefits)
Financial bailout of Northern Rock, RBS and other banks.

Although 64% of GDP is a lot it is worth bearing in mind, that other countries have a much bigger problem. Japan for example have a National debt of 194%, Italy is over 100%. The US national debt is close to 71% of GDP. [See other countries Debt] . Also the UK has had much higher National Debt. e.g. after the second world war it was over 180% of GDP.

Cost of National Debt
The cost of National debt is the interest the government has to pay on the bonds and gilts it sells. In the first six months of 2010, the debt interest payments were £21.6bn, suggesting an annual cost of around £43bn (3% of GDP)...

That final paragraph suggests roughly the equivalent of someone grossing pay of £30k p/a making debt interest only payments at 3% of gross pay p/a, something like £900 or £75 a month on a loan of 0.64 x 30k = 19.2k
Hardly breaking the bank - or is it?

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[ellal]

Unfortunately empip, the figures you quote (and a diagram from a site that 'helps to simplify economics') merely states what is owed right now...

It was compiled by the ONS, who also produce figures as to what we owe in total...and they came up with £4trillion as opposed to the £903billion which relates to 62% of GDP...

Add in the bailout of RBS and Lloyds (min £1trillion), public-sector pensions (£1.2Trillion as opposed to the £770 billion supposed to be met by taxpayers), State Pension (£1.35trillion), PFI (£200 bn), Nuclear decommisioning (£40 billion) etc etc...

Total bill is up to £4bn....

So it is time to panic...

Because current national debt does not equate to current national indebtedness!

 

[joe-90]

And that is just public debt - there is massive private debt too (credit cards, mortgage etc)

 

[empip]

No effort made to disguise where the data came from, in fact as usual the sources clearly linked. As are the sources of the Economics Help website the very ONS itself.

Surely the total pension debt actually means the cost until the last employee - from the point in time of the snapshot - is dead, possibly some 60 odd years or so. There'll be a fair old lump of GDP during that period of time.
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