OREANDA-NEWS. The size of the public debt of the United Kingdom in July for the first time exceeded 2 trillion pounds sterling (over 2.6 trillion US dollars) after a significant increase in government spending due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This is evidenced by data released on August 21 by the Office for National Statistics.

Thus, Great Britain’s national debt also exceeded the country’s gross domestic product for a year. Against the background of falling tax revenues after the economy entered a recession for the first time in 11 years and the adoption of a number of measures to support business and growth in social spending, the budget deficit in July amounted to 26.7 billion pounds sterling. The volume of borrowings in the first four months of the 2020–2021 fiscal year (April–July) reached 150.5 billion pounds.

The UK is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. According to the Department of Health and Social Care, over 322 thousand people are infected in the kingdom, the number of deaths has reached 41,403.