LONDON – Britain has seen its budget deficit rise during the coronavirus pandemic to its highest level since the year after the end of World War II, 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 pounds ($420 billion) in the financial year to end-March.
This was equivalent to 14.5% of the country’s annual gross domestic product, the highest level since 1946, when the deficit hit 15.2% of GDP.
The causes of the spike are simple. While tax receipts have ebbed as a result of the deepest recession in more than 300 years, the government has splashed out billions of pounds trying to prop