Guardian UK: Fifth of Britain's GDP spent so far on bailouts

[marmar]

IMF: Fifth of Britain's GDP spent so far on bailouts

Heather Stewart
guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 March 2009 20.41 GMT


Alistair Darling has already spent almost a fifth of Britain's GDP on bailing out its shattered banking system – more than any other major economy, according to a grave assessment of the world financial crisis published today by the International Monetary Fund.

With G20 finance ministers due to gather in Sussex next Friday for a two-day meeting before the London summit in April, the IMF has totted up the costs of financial bailouts so far. It calculates that the UK has spent as much as 19.8% of its GDP, topping the table of G20 countries.

The US, where the investment bank Bear Stearns and the insurer AIG have both been rescued with public finds, has spent just 6.8% of its GDP. Only Norway has come close to the UK, spending 13.8%.

Opposition politicians leapt on the figures as evidence of the economic damage inflicted by the credit crunch. Philip Hammond, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "This is a stark illustration of the true cost of Labour's Age of Irresponsibility. Thanks to the failings of the banking regulatory framework that Gordon Brown put in place, we have spent more than twice as much on bailing out the banking system as the United States – and taxpayers are on the hook for billions of pounds as a result." .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/06/imf-uk-bailout-gdp