Office for National Statistics Claims That Britain Has a Total Debt of 4.95 Trillion Pounds

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Britain’s national debt currently stands at around 4.95 trillion pounds, which is about five times more than previously released official estimates.

Debt estimates for Britain have been all over the map as of late.

The “official” number from the Office for National Statistics was previously around the 900 billion pound mark.

Independent observers and “think tanks” also chimed in, claiming that the total was closing to two trillion pounds.

However, after adding in:

-unfunded public service pension obligations
-unfunded state pension schemes
-government stakes in RBS and Lloyds

...the number soars to nearly five trillion pounds.

Five trillion pounds works out to around $7.64 trillion dollars USD, which means that each and every British citizen owes approximately $124,400 USD as their share of the public debt.

If you are living in the United States and reading this article, you should know that unfunded liabilities aren’t typically included in your country’s debt calculations as well.

According to a USA Today article released last year, the United States has an estimated $63.8 TRILLION in total obligations.

This works out to approximately $546,668 for every household in the United States.

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Anyways, back to Britain.

People in the country are understandably a bit jittery after this bombshell was dropped on them.

Imagine being told that your country owed 5 times more than previously thought?

Imagine being told by a government agency that your country owed 5 times more than previously thought?

Kudos to the British government for actually releasing this information, as people have a right to know the current fiscal condition of their country. There is far too much number massaging done these days, and while painful, the release of this information by the British government is a step towards actually fixing the country’s problems.

Source: Sky News - A Lot Worse: UK Mired in 5 Trillion Pounds of Debt

Filed under: The Economic Meltdown