Governement Overdraft........

[Loosehead]

If the government where a standard houshold let's say for sake of argument their monthly income was �2000, using current ratios of income and expendeture and also taking into account existing borrowing what would their overdraft be? This is part of an economics assignement for one of my sons, I have my own ideas, I just wanted to confirm them with you learned ABer's thanks.

[dzug]

I've never heard of a government overdraft - are you sure that's what you meant to type?

Also we'd need to know what existing borrowing was if you are after a numerical answer.

Or maybe I don't really understand the question - sorry.

[Loosehead]

When I say overdraft I mean what the givernement owes in total, "overdraft" is a convenient parallel to draw.

[dzug]

Ah - understood now. The 'Where' for 'were' typo in the first line threw me off the track entirely.

Still don't know the answer though - but at least I understand what you are asking!

[themas]

It looks as if you need to get the Government's annual income (presumably this is the amount they raise from taxation and other sources) and their annual expenditure. (I assume these figures are part of the published budget or pre-budget reports.) Say - plucking figures from the air - the income was �1billion and the expenditure �1.5billion, then on your �2000 income base the expenditure would be �3000. This is the first part. Then you need to find out the total amount of the Government's borrowing. This is a capital sum and may well be colossal. Say it is �10billion. As �1billion= �2000, �10billion = �20,000. So on these figures the total overdraft would be �21,000.