Does debt matter?

• Charles Goodhart, Emeritus Professor of Banking and Finance at LSE
• Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford University
• Olivier Blanchard, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

This evidence session, which is open to the public, will be held in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords. It will also be streamed live on Parliament TV.

Questions the committee is likely to ask in this session include:

• Are you by worried by current, public debt trajectories in the UK and other G7 countries.
• The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) told the committee that long-term debt sustainability requires action over the next Parliament. Over the medium term, what do you expect the Government to do?
• Interest rates are key variables in the debt sustainability equation. What will be their path over the medium to longer term?
• What do your short-and-long-term expectations for economic and geopolitical developments across the globe mean for the likely sustainability of the UK’s debt?
• What implications does the structure of the UK’s national debt have for its short and longer-term funding?

More about the 'How sustainable is our national debt?' inquiry

UK public sector net debt, often referred to as ‘national debt’, currently stands at just under 100 per cent of GDP.

The UK’s growth outlook remains weak; quantitative easing has significantly increased the sensitivity of the UK’s debt to changes in short-term interest rates; and it is unclear whether the Government’s fiscal rule, as it relates to the national debt, is fit for purpose.

The committee’s inquiry will investigate whether the UK’s national debt is on a sustainable path; if not, what steps are required; and whether the Government’s fiscal rule regarding the national debt is meaningful.