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Countdown to €/£ parity | 102 comments (102 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Countdown to €/£ parity (4.00 / 4)
Stumbling and Mumbling: UK overseas debt scare
Fraser Nelson is trying to scare us by pointing out that the UK's external debt is equivalent to 400% of our GDP.
Actually, on the most obvious measure, he understates the true amount. National Statistics say our external liabilities were £6.7 trillion in Q2 - 461% of our annualized GDP. (Tables D and K of this pdf).
What he doesn't say is that our overseas assets are also big. They`re £6.4 trillion. So our net overseas liabilities are just £309.4bn, 21.2% of annualized GDP. This is largely a reflection of the fact that we've been running  small current account deficits for ages.
by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Fri Dec 12th, 2008 at 04:19:09 PM EST
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Countdown to €/£ parity | 102 comments (102 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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