We're borrowing less than expected

20 August 2010



As the government prepares its spending review it will no doubt welcome the latest figures that show net borrowing for July at £3.8bn. While still sizeable, this is £1.2bn less than forecast and well down on the £6.1bn that was borrowed in the same month last year.

As the government prepares its spending review it will no doubt welcome the latest figures that show net borrowing for July at £3.8bn. While still sizeable, this is £1.2bn less than forecast and well down on the £6.1bn that was borrowed in the same month last year. If this continues, borrowing for the year will undershoot the Budget forecast of £149bn. The July figure benefited from healthy corporation tax receipts of £8.5bn (up 38% on the same period last year and up 25% in the year so far). The Treasury were keen to point out that the figures were more or less as expected and also highlighted that the corporation tax receipts were well below their pre-recession peak and that the UK was still expected to have the largest deficit of G20 this year. Why down play the positive news? Because they need us to still believe in the need for spending cuts and austerity on which we will find out more in the October spending review. read more ...


UK Government  Finance 

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