UK sees budget deficit rise to highest rate since 1946

LONDON: Britain has seen its budget deficit rise during the coronavirus pandemic to its highest level since the year after the end of WWII, official figures showed Friday.

The Office for National Statistics said public sector net borrowing — the official gauge of the difference between the government’s spending and taxes — reached £303.1 billion ($420 billion) in the financial year to end-March. This was equivalent to 14.5 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product, the highest level since 1946, when the deficit hit 15.2 percent of the GDP.