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 (USD 420 billion) in the financial year to end-March. This was equivalent to 14.5 per cent of the country s annual gross domestic product, the highest level since 1946, when the deficit hit 15.2 per cent 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 up the economy and jobs since the pandemic first struck more than a year ago.
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Britain s Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has had a successful procedure for a pre-existing heart condition at a London hospital where he was moved earlier this week, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday. The 99-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II has now spent 16 nights in hospital first at the private King Edward VII s Hospital and now at St. Bartholomew s Hospital where he was transferred for further tests and observation for a pre-existing heart condition. The Duke of Edinburgh yesterday [Wednesday] underwent a successful procedure for a pre-existing heart condition at St. Bartholomew s Hospital, Buckingham Palace said in a statement. His Royal Highness will remain in hospital for treatment, rest and recuperation for a number of days, the statement added.
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