This article continues the series of notes begun in the March 1986 Bulletin and last updated in the November 1988 Bulletin, from which date it has been combined with the long-standing series of articles on the national debt and its distribution. It has been compiled with the help of the Central Statistical Office.
The main points are:
- The consolidated debt of the public sector and the net debt of the public sector both fell by around £13 billion in 1988/89. Market holdings of national debt fell by nearly £11 billion.
- On all these measures, there was a large decline in relation to GDP (6 percentage points in the case of the net debt).
- A somewhat higher proportion of national debt in market hands was in indexed form, continuing the upward trend which was interrupted last year.
The net debt of the public sector end-March 1989