UK Government Borrowing Higher Than Expected in April

Government borrowing was higher than analysts’ expectations in April after forecasts for company tax payments fell short of hopes.

The Office for National Statistics said borrowing, excluding support for state-owned banks, was £7.2bn in April.

That was down from £7.5bn last year but higher than analysts’ forecasts of about £6,6bn.
The ONS also revised up its estimate of the amount borrowed in the financial year to March to £76bn.

That was £2bn more than its previous estimate, and £3.8bn above the prediction that had been made by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which produces forecasts for government.
The main reason for the lower figure was weaker-than-expected income from workers’ national insurance contributions.

The ONS says annual borrowing has been falling in general since the peak reached in the 2009-10 financial year.

Last year’s figure was £15.7bn lower than for the year before, and is half that borrowed in 2009-10.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza