LONDON: Britain’s current account deficit has reached 32.7 billion pounds (47 billion U.S. dollars), or 7 percent of GDP, widened to a record high in the fourth quarter of 2015, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday.
As a result, deficit in last year amounted to 96.2 billion pounds, equivalent to 5.2 percent of GDP.
Both figures were highest since official records began in 1948.
The widening in the current account deficit from 20.1 billion pounds in Q3 to 32.7 billion pounds in Q4 was far worse than expected. Direct investment and portfolio (debt and equity) income balances worsened, as receipts fell and payments abroad rose, the research organization Capital Economics commented.
ONS said the deficit had widened because income from the Britain’s direct investments abroad had fallen, while payments to foreign investors in Britain had risen.
