The rest of the 19th century was spent in
drawing the debt down, to a low of 25
percent of GDP in 1914. That was just
before the outbreak of the Great War in
Europe.
The National Debt reached almost 85
percent of GDP in the aftermath of the
crisis, and is forecast to drift higher to 88.5
percent of GDP by 2020.
Interesting ...
Debt since 1900
The real risk from government debt is the
In the 20th century the UK government has burden of interest payments. Experts say
increased the National Debt to fight wars
that when interest payments reach about
and to mitigate economic troubles.
12% of GDP then a government will likely
default on its debt. Chart 5 shows that the
UK is a long way from that risk. The peak
period for government interest payments,
including central government and local
authorities, was in the 1920s and 1930s
right after World War I.
The UK Government
debt total is now...
8th January 2018 –
£1.8 trillion approx
Chart 4.03: National Debt 1900-2020
At the beginning of the 20th century in
1900 the National Debt stood at a very
manageable 30 percent of GDP and
dipped to 25 percent of GDP by 1914
despite the intervening Boer War. But the
Great War, World War I, caused an
explosion in the National Debt up to 135
percent of