THE TELEGRAPH: The pound has slumped to its lowest level in 20 months, after a "shocking" raft of figures revealed how deeply reliant the UK has become on debt.
Britain's current account has recorded its worst deficit since the late 1980s, making Britain's national balance sheet worse than the United States' for the first time since Nigel Lawson was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Figures published by the Office for National Statistics caused a major sell-off of the pound, as experts warned that the UK currency would have to fall in value to bring the current account back into line. Sterling dropped to 98.9 on the Bank of England's comprehensive trade-weighted index, which measures it against a basket of other currencies. This is the lowest level since April 2006.
It also fell more than two cents against the dollar to $1.9813 and neared an all-time low against the euro, with the single currency worth 72.39 pence. Debt fears push sterling to 20 month low >>> By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
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