UK public debt nears £3 trillion — MercoPress
In the United Kingdom, net public sector debt reached £2,985.5 billion, or 93.8% of gross domestic product, at the end of August. This is nearly £3 trillion. As MercoPress reports, such levels were last recorded in the early 1960s, according to the UK Office for National Statistics.
Over the year, the volume of debt increased by £78.5 billion. At the same time, its share of GDP was 1.3 percentage points lower than in August 2025, which the statistical office attributed to growth in nominal GDP.
Borrowing exceeded the forecast
From the start of the financial year in April through the end of August, the public sector borrowed £77.3 billion. This was 2.7% less than in the same period last year, but £8.1 billion above the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecast. A month earlier, the deviation from the forecast stood at £2.3 billion.
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In August alone, borrowing reached £18.3 billion — 19% more than in August of the previous year and £3.5 billion more than the Office for Budget Responsibility's estimate. According to the Office for National Statistics, spending grew faster than revenue from taxes and other sources, partly because of inflation.
Debt servicing costs
In August, the government paid £8.8 billion in interest on debt — the highest amount for that month in the entire observation period. Around £2.1 billion of this was due to adjustments in the value of index-linked government bonds, whose payments change depending on the retail price index.
At the same time, total borrowing for April–August amounted to 2.5% of GDP, which was 0.2 percentage points lower than a year earlier. This was the tenth-lowest figure for this period since comparable monthly statistics began in 1993.
