UK bonds downgraded, debt up

China's first domestic rating agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating Co. Ltd., on Tuesday downgraded the local and foreign currency long-term sovereign credit rating of the United Kingdom by one level to A+ from previous AA- with "negative" outlook. 

Dagong predicted the growth rate of UK economy to be between 1.3 percent and 1.5 percent in the next two years. And its budget deficit would exceed the targeted 7.9 percent to 9 percent. 

This is about the only honest assessment of the UK economy and bond status that I have read.  AAA seems to be a thing of the past, but then the rating agencies which gave out those ratings ceased to be reliable and independent more than a decade (or two) ago, the the past in this case may well be in the 1980s.

If Dagong are right in their GDP forecast, and I certainly think they are in the right area, and inflation remains above 5%....

h/t ZeroHedge.com

UPDATE: April net government overspend (aka net borrowing) has been published today, £10bn, or £10,000,000,000.  This is £333m a day, including weekends and bank holidays.  It is the worst on record, but with deficit spending like this - it is to be expected, and expected to increase, until we default (or restructure or whatever the fashionable term for it is at the time we default)