UK Debt exceeds 100% of UK GDP

The report revealed that public sector net borrowing in May 2023 was £20.0 billion, £10.7 billion more than in May 2022 and the second-highest May borrowing since monthly records began in 1993, with the growth in receipts being exceeded by the additional costs of the energy support schemes and increases in both benefit payments and staff costs.

The ONS’s initial estimate of net debt expressed as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) for May 2023 should be treated as highly provisional and likely to be revised in future publications because it partly relies on GDP estimates based on the latest OBR forecast; more information is available in Section 12: Strengths and limitations.

Public sector net debt at the end of May 2023 was £2,567.2 billion, provisionally estimated at 100.1% of GDP.

The last time the debt-to-GDP ratio was above 100% was in March 1961; during the coronavirus pandemic early, provisional estimates indicated that the debt-to-GDP ratio reached this level before being revised down when more substantial GDP data replaced initial forecasts.

Excluding the Bank of England, debt was £2,298.6 billion or provisionally around 89.6% of GDP, £268.6 billion (or 10.5 percentage points of GDP) lower than the wider measure.