Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Public Sector Debt – 4 April 1989

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Public Sector Debt on 4th April 1989.

Mr. Tim Smith To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how he computed the figure for the percentage of public sector debt to have been repaid by 31 March 1990 referred to in the Official Report, 15 March, column 431.

Mr. Major [holding answer 23 March 1989]: The “Financial Statement and Budget Report” (paragraph 6.04) forecast that the stock of net public sector debt would be £157 billion at the end of 1988–89. On the assumption that the change in the stock of debt in 1989–90 will be the same as the PSDR forecast for that year, the stock of debt will be £143 billion at the end of the year. This is some 16 per cent. lower than the stock of debt at the beginning of 1987–88, estimated to have been £171 billion.