UK Current Account Record

UK Record Deficit

The UK's current account 1) __________, a key 2) __________ indicator, widened to a record level in the three months from July to September, 3) __________ to official data.   It was £20bn, or 5.7% of gross 4) __________ product, compared 5) __________ £13.7bn in the 6) __________ three months, the Office for National Statistics reported.

Analysts also 7) __________ worries about the record level of government 8) __________. The data is evidence of a "dangerously unbalanced economy", according to one analyst.  In its monthly report on government financing, the Office for National Statistics announced that public 9) __________ net borrowing had hit a record £11.21bn in November.

The borrowing 10) __________ suggested that the government was 11) __________ track to overshoot its pre-Budget report forecast by at least £5bn this year.  "Overall, a pretty ugly picture, supporting our view that the coming economic 12) __________ will be a prolonged period of adjustment rather than a short pause for breath like that seen in 2005," the analyst explained.

"What is really shocking about these 13) __________ is that they reveal that the Exchequer was running a large current deficit before the credit crisis 14) __________ home, when the economy was doing very well and it should have been showing a large current 15) __________," said Professor Peter Spencer.