UK deficit forecast to be worst in EU and higher than Greece

The UK budget deficit will hit 12% this year to become the highest in the EU, the European Commission forecasts.

On the eve of the General Election, predictions from the Commission are worse than the Chancellor's, and cast into doubt estimates made by Alistair Darling during his March Budget. Darling forecast an 11.1% ratio of public sector net borrowing, the gap between tax and spending, to GDP. However, the UK has begun "a slow start to a protracted recovery", according to the European Economic Forecast for spring 2010. If the more conservative figures prove correct, the UK budget deficit will swell this year to overtake that of Ireland and Greece as the highest of all the 27 EU nations. ...