BRITISH NATIONAL DEBT

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1929, Page 11

BRITISH NATIONAL DEBT

provision for redemption. Last vear Mr. Winston Churchill introduced the system of a fixed annual provision for the national debt, the amount reserved being £355,000,000, the balance after payment of interest to be appropriated-to repayment of debt A writer ,in the Review of Reviews states that, in addition to interest on the national debt, this amount has to cover interest,: on savings certificates (which accumulates during their currency and becomes- payable on their maturity) and the compulsory or obligatory sinking funds attached to. specific loans, amounting to about £50,000,000 a year. Last year ordinary interest absorbed £293,491,000, and Interest' on sayings certificates £lB,000,000, leaving only £43,509,000 available for redemption of debt. Fortunately £13,200,000 of profits made on the currency note' issue became available, and this was applied to paying off debt. Actually the sinking fund appropriations out of revenue were £57.909,000, or £13,091,001 less than the obligatory siukina'funds, for the Chancellor included” £6,400,000 received in repayment of Dominion war debts in his revenue. The writer states that the interest charge for this year has been underestimated, and instead of £51,000,000 he estimates that less than £44,000,000, or over £60,000,000 short of statutory requirements, will be available for debt redemption. "In other words,” he concluded, “the country will be borrowing to repay debt.”