UK Borrowing Remains Within Annual Budget Target

Public borrowing for the U.K. government narrowed at the end of the first quarter to bring the figure for the past financial year to a level below the official forecast, according to Bloomberg.

Public borrowing for the U.K. government narrowed at the end of the first quarter to bring the figure for the past financial year to a level below the official forecast, according to Bloomberg. On Thursday, the Office for National Statistics reported that net borrowing for March was £18.6 billion, narrowing from £19.8 one year earlier and slipping under the £20 billion shortfall forecast by economists. The total shortfall for the fiscal year that ended in March was £141.1 billion, which was £4.8 billion less than the official target set by the government.

The government initially expected to borrow £163 billion in 2010-2011, and that figure was revised to £145.9 billion when the March 2011 budget was unveiled, according to Financial Times. The below-target total was due to a £3 billion surplus in public corporation borrowing rather than a £1 billion deficit as the Office for Budget Responsibility had expected. Vicky Redwood of Capital Economics said despite the better-than-expected data, the latest figure is “still a huge number and the government will find it much harder to meet this year’s borrowing target if the economic recovery disappoints.”

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