Government borrowing in February 'less than predicted'
Government borrowing in February 'less than predicted'
Thursday 18th March 2010
The UK government borrowed another £12.4 billion in February, around £2 billion less than had been predicted by some economists.Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that provisional estimates of public finances show that net debt now stands at £857.5 billion, or 60.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
The figures showed that the government also suffered from a reduction in tax receipts, and had to borrow to make up the short-fall.
January's borrowing figure, meanwhile, was also sharply revised down by the ONS to £43 million from £4.3 billion. Today's figures are likely to provide chancellor Alistair Darling with some welcome relief ahead of next week's Budget report.
Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist at IHS Global Insight said: "The public sector finance data for February are better than feared and show reduced deterioration.
"Furthermore, January's shortfall was trimmed substantially while there were other downward revisions to earlier months in the fiscal year.
"This means that Mr Darling could significantly undershoot the £178 billion public sector borrowing requirement that he forecast for 2009/2010 in last December's Pre-Budget Report. The chancellor may see this as giving him some 'wriggle room' for one or two eye-catching, if limited, pre-election handouts in next week's budget."
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