on Friday, 16 October 2009 11:15
The true level of government debt is not £805 billion as currently reported by the ONS but £2,200 billion (i.e. £85,610 per household), demonstrates Brooks Newmark MP in The Hidden Debt Bombshell published on Monday 19 October by the Centre for Policy Studies.
For the official figures (which are due to be updated on Tuesday 20 October) do not take into account:
- the full cost of projects financed through the PFI (£139 billion)
- unfunded public sector pension liabilities (£1,104 billion)
- contingent liabilities such as Network Rail (£22 billion)
- the cost of recent interventions in the financial sector (£130 billion).
These hidden liabilities total £1,395 billion (100% of GDP). The true public debt is therefore £805 billion + £1,395 billion = £2.2 trillion (157% of GDP).
This is an increase of £346 billion since last year - almost £1 billion a day or £700,000 a minute - when the true level of debt was £1.85 trillion (127% of GDP). A debt clock illustrating the rate of increase can be found here.
Brooks Newmark's report can be download free here. Post your comments here.
The report is covered in The Times, The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, The Daily Express, City AM and Bloomberg.