UK borrowing soars, retail sales plunge as COVID-19 hits economy

Britain's government borrowed more than it has done in any month on record in April, pushing up a measure of public debt to close to 100 percent of economic output, and retail sales fell by a record 18 percent as the coronavirus crisis hammered the economy.

April's borrowing of 62.1 billion pounds (75.80 billion U.S. dollars) was six times higher than in the same month last year and March's figure was revised up sharply to almost 15 billion pounds as the government's emergency job-saving scheme began.

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