The key facts
- UK national debt exceeded £3 trillion ($4 trillion) for the first time
- The budget deficit amounted to £97.8 billion — £6 billion above the forecast, but £4.4 billion below the 2025 figure
- Earlier, Cambridge University professor Jagjit Chadha suggested the country could turn to the IMF for an emergency loan
Record Debt Level
The United Kingdom's national debt has exceeded £3 trillion for the first time in history, which is equivalent to approximately $4 trillion. This is reported by Reuters. The data pertains to September 2026.
Borrowing and Budget Deficit
According to the same data, the volume of borrowing by the British government in September amounted to £24.52 billion, which turned out to be higher than the projected level. The budget deficit reached £97.8 billion — this is £6 billion more than expected, however £4.4 billion less than a year earlier, in 2025.
Context: Concerns About the Country's Financial Situation
In 2025, British media repeatedly wrote about the country's financial problems. Cambridge University professor Jagjit Chadha noted at the time that the United Kingdom might be forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan due to growing economic problems.
The US National Debt Situation
For comparison: the US national debt, which reached a record level of $40 trillion, increased by almost another $400 billion in the two months after that. It was also previously reported that Elon Musk proposed his own solution to the US national debt problem.
