This is why no one gets economic data. This is just published by the Office for Budget Responsibility:
Give us the numbers - not percentages.
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Richard,
If I just heard correctly, Rishi Sunak is removing the £450 billion of QE this year from the UK DEBT in order to keep the debt/GDP ration below 100%… BUT he is leaving the previous £425 billion of QE assets held by the BoE as debt ! This is surely the breakdown of the smoke and mirrors deceit about QE, and we now should be talking about actual DEBT minus all of QE (which is just repurchase debt). You expert opinion would be much appreciated.
I thought I heard that too but now I have looked at the forecast I am not convinced
I think he was instead quoting the lowest level forecasts
Nothing in the OBR report seems to confirm what I heard
The statement is vague but is… from website “Underlying debt — after removing the temporary effect of the Bank of England’s asset purchases — is forecast to be 91.9% of GDP this year”…. To get to 91% ,with a GDP minus 11% he must be deducting this years QE for the debt figure? … the first time this has happened
It would seem that way – but this is. not in the OBR data so all very odd
PS . The reason I am pursuing this is because The Debt is what Sunak is waving around as an excuse for political actions such as wage freezes. If the other £435 billion of 2009/10 debt is also removed from the total and then Debt to GDP will be more like 65% – so low not high
And I promise you, even that is overstated
I am confused….. but that is not unusual.
However, is there a possibility that obsession with debt statistics (keeping debt/GDP below some arbitrary number) might mean a switch to excluding BoE owned debt from the data…. at least in Rishi’s mind. If so, it would be step forward!
I sent this to Channel 4 and got the response that they will bring it to the notice of the News department. I am not holding my breath. Ch4, at least, should be able to challenge the obfuscation. Do none of them understand our economics?
“Why do none of your economy correspondents use Modern Monetary Theory in
their explanations of the necessary Covid-19 expenditures? Do any of them
understand the way our economy works? You are allowing the continuing
government obfuscation to go unchallenged. There is NO need to “repay” the
debt the government owes to itself!”
Thanks!