The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) has announced the UK government will sell a further £92 billion of bonds over the next four months.

The increase will take total sales of such debt securities for the financial year to a record £485.5 billion.

For 2021-22, the UK government’s gross financing requirement is likely to be £255.9 billion, based on new spending forecasts from finance minister Rishi Sunak, the DMO said. 

The £485.5 billion is more than twice the amount the UK raised during the peak of the global financial crisis, according to Bloomberg.

The UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility said: “The coronavirus pandemic has delivered the largest peacetime shock to the global economy on record. 

“It has required the imposition of severe restrictions on economic and social life; driven unprecedented falls in national income; fuelled rises in public deficits and debt surpassed only in wartime; and created considerable uncertainty about the future. 

“The UK economy has been hit relatively hard by the virus and by the public health restrictions required to control it …

“The virus has also exacted a heavy and mounting toll on the public finances. 

“In our central forecast, receipts this year are set to be £57 billion lower, and spending £281 billion higher, than last year.”