Where the words come from
The definitions of the budget deficit and the national debt, and how deficits add to the stock of government bonds — Principles of Economics 2e, OpenStax, licensed CC BY 4.0. https://openstax.org/books/principles-economics-2e/pages/30-3-federal-deficits-and-the-national-debt. Changes: "federal" removed; "Treasury bonds" to government bonds, which in the UK are gilts; the US fiscal year and history dropped; the falling-deficit question and the example are ours; British spelling.
Public sector net borrowing and net debt, the UK figures for 2025-26, why the debt ratio can fall while the debt rises, and the cyclical and structural deficit — A brief guide to the public finances, Office for Budget Responsibility, April 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances/. Changes: figures taken from the OBR's March 2026 forecast as quoted in the guide and rounded; the debt ratio given as 94 per cent from 94.3; the definitions of the structural and cyclical deficit condensed onto two cards, the cyclical one built from the guide's account of receipts falling and welfare spending rising when the economy is weak; the card examples are ours; the debt-to-GDP ratio named and defined in our own words, with the reason it is preferred to the cash figure (a larger economy raises more tax to pay the interest) ours; the new ratio check is ours.
The question and the page layout are our own.