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Thursday 19 November 2009

Reducing the deficit is not the same as reducing the debt

I know I blogged about this yesterday but people still seem to be confused. The BBC report the promise thus:
"Fiscal Responsibility Bill -
Provides a "firm and binding statutory basis" for the government's promise to halve its budget deficit within four years."

Hansard report this part of the Queen's Speech thus:
"As the economic recovery is established (sic), my Government will reduce the budget deficit and ensure that national debt is on a sustainable path. Legislation will be brought forward to halve the deficit."
Let nobody be in any doubt that the promise to cut the deficit by 50% over the next four years would mean the National Debt rising by over £550 billion (assuming an even yearly reduction in the deficit). And nowhere on the BBC can I see this point being made. Now most of the UK population does not understand the difference between "deficit" and "debt" so why does the BBC not follow its mission to educate and explain the difference? Is the BBC colluding with a Labour government by seeming to indicate that the economic position is not that bad and that the country's debt can be halved in four years?

1 comment:

increasinglymiffed said...

I also blogged about this yesterday. I thin it's scary that so much of the population are entirely mistaken about what is happening. In four years time, even assuming that target is met, our debt will still be rising at something like £100bn a year, with a corresponding increase in the cost of servicing it.

When will someone talk about how to achieve a budget SURPLUS, which is clearly needed to reduce debt?