UK debt repayments soar on high inflation

LONDON, June 23 (AFP): Interest repayments on UK government debt have soared as the country's inflation reaches the highest levels in decades, official data showed Thursday.
Repayments in May stood at £7.6 billion ($9.3 billion), up 70 per cent compared with a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
It was the third biggest amount on record and highest for the month of May, the ONS added.
"The recent high levels of debt interest payments are largely a result of higher inflation," the statistics office said.
The ONS added that the government's net borrowing in fact fell to £14 billion in May from £18 billion a year earlier, when the state was still funding the bulk of private-sector wages to safeguard jobs during the pandemic.