UK government debt as a percentage of GDP is not as high as other countries - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: James Bovington, Horsforth, Leeds.

There’s much talk at present about how much the UK government is paying in interest to cover the National Debt and apparently how the UK is relatively badly placed in terms of having a higher rate of repayment interest than competitor nations.

UK government debt as a percentage of GDP at 93 per cent. Germany’s debt is at 64 per cent whereas Spain at 101 per cent, France at 116 per cent and Italy at 137 per cent fare worse than the UK. Canada has a similar debt ratio to France at 114 per cent and at 123 per cent the USA has much higher debt than the UK. China’s ratio is 100 per cent whereas Japan has a truly frightening 249 per cent.

I’m not an economist. What matters at least as much is the rate at which money is being repaid. I understand that the UK for various reasons pays interest at a higher rate than most Eurozone countries. At some point future borrowings of Eurozone countries could be merged with one single Eurobond issued to finance debt. That would force far greater fiscal discipline.

My point in providing these statistics is to make readers aware of where the UK debt stands in relation to that of our European and North American allies.