Industry interest payments since 1970

FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4580

You asked

How much does industry spend on interest payments on its loans, can you please provide this data in a yearly time series increments from 1970?

We said

Thank you for your request,

Data on interest paid by non-financial corporations is available from the ONS's Sector Accounts in their publication, UK Economic Accounts, Quarter 2 2002.

We hold data from 1987 and this has been provided in the associated download named 'Interest_Payments_Financial_and_Non-Financial_Sectors_1987 to 2021'. Please note, we do not analyse data for interest paid on loans only in the Sector Accounts. For non-financial corporations, our data is a combination of interest paid on loans and interest paid on debt securities, for example, interest to bond holders.

Data for financial corporations, including banks and building societies, is also provided.  The interest paid is a much broader category as it also includes interest paid to deposit holders. Within the financial sector, interest paid on deposits makes up the majority of interest paid.