Almost half a trillion pounds has “gone missing” from Britain’s finances, new figures reveal. A revision of the country’s accounts by the Office for National Statistics shows that the UK’s net international investment position has collapsed from a surplus of £469bn to a net deficit of £22bn. The ONS ‘blue book’ overestimated the scale of financial assets Britons own overseas and the depth of foreign investment in the UK. “Half a trillion pounds has gone missing,” said Mark Capleton, the UK rates strategist at Bank of America. Other economists have warned that foreign-owned pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are also very reluctant to invest their clients’ money in sterling stocks and bonds.

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