By Nick Parish of the Bank’s Monetary and Financial Statistics Division.
This article continues the annual series analysing the public sector debt position and the composition and distribution of the national debt. It has been compiled with the help of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and others. Its main points are:
- In 1995/96, the nominal value of the net debt of the public sector rose by around £33 billion, while market holdings of the national debt rose by around £38 billion. As a proportion of GDP, these measures increased by 2.7 and 3.4 percentage points respectively, to 44.6% and 47.5%.
- In the twelve months to the end of March 1996, the ratio of general government consolidated gross debt to GDP (calculated on a Maastricht basis) rose by 3.3 percentage points to 53.8%, remaining well below the 60% reference level specified in the Maastricht Treaty.
Public sector debt: end-March 1996