Rising debt makes it ‘near impossible’ for UK to keep AAA rating

THE UK is likely to be stripped of its AAA credit-rating status, as borrowing soars by tens of billions more than predicted, a group of economists has warned.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicted Britain would lose its gold-plated status, with the nation’s debt and GDP ratio expected to rise to 85 per cent within five years.

The UK deficit in 2017-18 is forecast to reach £68 billion – more than double the £31bn previously forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The debt crisis will also continue for well over a decade, with deficit reduction set to be “a three parliament problem” according to the report.

Britain will find it “almost impossible” to keep its triple-A status, due to the sharp rise in national debt, the economists said as they painted a gloomy picture for the years ahead.

The loss of the status, which assesses the credit worthiness of government debt issues, would be damaging to Scotland when trying to attract investment, SNP MSP John Wilson warned, as he urged a programme of major infrastructure projects.

The CEBR report also highlighted what it said was a failure to reduce public spending, and a slow economic growth figure for 2013 of 0.5 per cent as “likely to be the new normal”.