{"id":22268,"date":"2023-04-25T09:05:40","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T09:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/uk-records-21-5-billion\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T09:08:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T09:08:28","slug":"uks-lower-than-expected-borrowing-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/uks-lower-than-expected-borrowing-points\/","title":{"rendered":"UK&#8217;s lower-than-expected borrowing points to future budget leeway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Andy Bruce<\/p>\n<p>LONDON (Reuters) -Britain&#8217;s government borrowed less than predicted in the financial year that ended in March, according to data on Tuesday which showed finance minister Jeremy Hunt may be able to adopt a less austere stance ahead of the next general election. <\/p>\n<p>The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported borrowing of 139.2 billion pounds ($174 billion) for the fiscal year to the end of March, or 5.5% of gross domestic product &#8211; up from 121.1 billion pounds in 2021\/22, or 5.2% of GDP.<\/p>\n<p>The Office for Budget Responsibility &#8211; whose forecasts are used by the government &#8211; estimated last month that borrowing for the 2022\/23 financial year would be 152.4 billion pounds, or 6.1% of economic output.<\/p>\n<p>Overall the figures chimed with other readings of Britain&#8217;s economy that point to a better-than-expected performance in recent months, even if the overall picture remains one of stagnant activity and high inflation.<\/p>\n<p>Hunt faces pressure from lawmakers in his Conservative Party to cut taxes before an election expected in 2024, while public sector workers&#8217; unions are pushing for pay increases to offset the impact of inflation&#8217;s surge above 10%.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The big picture is that we remain reasonably convinced that &#8230; Hunt will be able to announce a package of tax cuts ahead of a likely general election next year, even if the underlying growth trend this year remains subdued,&#8221; said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec.<\/p>\n<p>In March alone, the government borrowed 21.5 billion pounds, just over the 20 billion pound consensus in a Reuters poll.<\/p>\n<p>A new assessment of the value of student loans was a big factor behind a cut in estimated borrowing of 14.6 billion pounds over the 11 months to February, the ONS said.<\/p>\n<p>The government&#8217;s total energy bill subsidies cost about 8 billion pounds in March, taking the six-month total cost to 41.2 billion pounds.<\/p>\n<p>Public sector net debt for 2022\/23 stood at 2.53 trillion pounds or 99.6% of economic output &#8211; a proportion last seen in the early 1960s. <\/p>\n<p>A new estimate of the public sector&#8217;s net worth &#8211; the difference between liabilities and assets &#8211; showed a deficit of 606 billion pounds, up from 530 billion pounds last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A growing net worth deficit shows that we are failing to invest in our future, and we need to turn this record around urgently,&#8221; said Cara Pacitti, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank.<\/p>\n<p>($1 = 0.8021 pounds)<\/p>\n<p> (Editing by William Schomberg and Christina Fincher)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/uk-borrowing-remains-eye-watering\/a-worker-walks-into-the-treasury-building-in-london\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportEconomy\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3O086-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3O086-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Andy Bruce LONDON (Reuters) -Britain&#8217;s government borrowed less than predicted in the financial year that ended in March, according to data on Tuesday which showed finance minister Jeremy Hunt may be able to adopt a less austere stance ahead of the next general election. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported borrowing of 139.2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":22351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1216],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-22268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-economy","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportEconomy\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3O086-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22268"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22432,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22268\/revisions\/22432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}