UK Borrowing Rises in July

The Treasury ran up a rare July deficit last month, raising doubts about the coalition’s progress in tackling the black hole in Britain’s public finances.

July traditionally sees a surplus as it is a strong month for tax receipts, with quarterly corporation tax payments due. But the Office for National Statistics said the government had to borrow £100m last month, compared with the £800m surplus it ran up in the same month last year.

Once the boost from banking the proceeds of the government’s quantitative easing programme were excluded, the deficit increased to £500m.

Taking the first four months of the financial year together, the underlying picture was of a £36.8bn shortfall, up from £35.2bn over the same period in 2012-13.

That was an increase of 4.7% – a larger rise than the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is expecting for the fiscal year as a whole.

via The Guardian

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