U.K government borrowing soared to 173.7Bn pounds ($222Bn) in the first five months of the fiscal year as the costs of the coronavirus pandemic continued to mount.
The budget deficit in August alone was 35.9Bn pounds, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. Britain now has borrowed more since a national lockdown was imposed in March than during the whole of the year following the 2008-09 financial crisis.
The pandemic has wrought havoc with the public finances. Debt is now above 2Tn pounds and the deficit –- the amount the government needs to borrow to fund its spending -– is set to be approaching 400Bn pounds in the current fiscal year.
At almost a fifth of gross domestic product, it would represent the largest gap in British peacetime. In 2009-10, the deficit hit 157.7Bn pounds or 10.1% of the economy.
