Government debt in the United Kingdom reached over 2.8 trillion British pounds in 2024/25, compared with 2.69 trillion pounds in the previous financial year. Although debt has been increasing throughout this period, there is a noticeable jump between 2019/20, and 2020/21, when debt increased from 1.82 trillion pounds, to 2.15 trillion. The UK's government debt was the equivalent of 95.8 percent of GDP in 2024/25, and is expected to increase slightly in coming years, and not start falling until the end of this decade. Public finances in a tight spot With government debt approaching 100 percent of GDP, the UK finds itself in a tricky fiscal situation. If the UK can't reduce it's spending, or increase its revenue, the government will have to continue borrowing large amounts, increasing the debt further. Adding to the problem, is the fact that financing this debt has got steadily more expensive recently, with the government currently spending more on debt interest than it does on defence, transport, and public order and safety. Can the UK grow out its debt? After the Second World War, when the national debt reached over 250 percent of GDP, the UK managed to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio, due to the economy growing faster than its debt over a long period of time. This is certainly the hope of the current Labour government, who are seeking to avoid significant tax and spending adjustments by strengthening the economy. Overdue investments in infrastructure and increased capital spending may eventually achieve this goal, but the government's declining popularity suggests they may not be in power by the time these policies might eventually bear fruit.

As of December 2024, all United Kingdom government debt securities were returning positive yields, regardless of maturity. This places the yield of both UK short term bonds and long term bonds above that of major countries like Germany, France and Japan, but lower than the United States. What are government bonds? Government bonds are debt instruments where a certain amount of money is given to the issuer, in exchange for regular payments of interest over a fixed period. At the end of this period the issuer then returns the amount in full. Bonds differ from a regular loan through how they can be traded on financial markets once issued. This ability to trade bonds makes it more complex to measure the return investors receive from bonds, as the price they buy a bond for on the market may differ from the price the same bond was initially issued at. The yield is therefore calculated as what investors can expect to receive based on current market prices paid for the bond, not the value it was issued at. In total, UK government debt amounted to over 2.4 trillion British pounds in 2023 – with the majority being comprised of different types of UK government bonds. Why are inverted yield curves important? UK government bond yields over recent years have taken on a typical shape, with short term bonds having a lower yield than bonds with a maturity of 10 to 20 years. The higher yield of longer-term bonds compensates investors for the higher level of uncertainty in the future. However, if investors are sufficiently worried about both a short term economic decline, and low long term growth, they may prefer to purchase short term bonds in order to secure assets with regular interest payments in the here and now (as opposed to shares, which can lose a lot of value in a short time). This can lead to an inverted yield curve, where shorter term debt has a higher yield. Inverted yield curves are generally seen as a reliable indicator of a recession, with inverted yields occurring before most recent U.S. recessions. The major exception to this is the recession from the coronavirus pandemic – but even then, U.S. yield curves came perilously close to being inverted in mid-2019.

As of December 2024, Japan held United States treasury securities totaling about 1.06 trillion U.S. dollars. Foreign holders of United States treasury debt According to the Federal Reserve and U.S. Department of the Treasury, foreign countries held a total of 8.5 trillion U.S. dollars in U.S. treasury securities as of December 2024. Of the total held by foreign countries, Japan and Mainland China held the greatest portions, with China holding 759 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. securities. The U.S. public debt In 2023, the United States had a total public national debt of 33.2 trillion U.S. dollars, an amount that has been rising steadily, particularly since 2008. In 2023, the total interest expense on debt held by the public of the United States reached 678 billion U.S. dollars, while 197 billion U.S. dollars in interest expense were intra governmental debt holdings. Total outlays of the U.S. government were 6.1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. By 2029, spending is projected to reach 8.3 trillion U.S. dollars.

Daily, weekly and monthly data showing seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted UK spending using debit and credit cards. These are official statistics in development. Source: CHAPS, Bank of England.

The yield on UK 20 Year Bond Yield eased to 5.23% on July 3, 2025, marking a 0.07 percentage point decrease from the previous session. Over the past month, the yield has edged up by 0.01 points and is 0.59 points higher than a year ago, according to over-the-counter interbank yield quotes for this government bond maturity. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for UK 20Y.

The yield on United Kingdom 2Y Bond Yield eased to 3.84% on July 3, 2025, marking a 0.06 percentage point decrease from the previous session. Over the past month, the yield has fallen by 0.19 points and is 0.35 points lower than a year ago, according to over-the-counter interbank yield quotes for this government bond maturity. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for UK 2Y.

This dataset provides values for INTEREST RATE reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.