Net borrowing of the public sector was lowered by £0.5 billion to £6.4 billion on an annual scale last month but it came in £6.4 billion stronger, at £31.2 billion, in the first five months of the financial year from the same period in 2018, the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. The measure of current budget deficit excludes public sector banks.
The print for the previous full financial year was £41.4 billion, data showed after revision. The sum is £17.8 billion higher than in the previous update, but down by £5.1 billion from 2017/18 and the lowest in 12 years.
Net debt in August was £1.7799 trillion or 80.9% of the gross domestic product, adding £24.5 billion year over year, but actually decreasing by 1.5 percentage points. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects £1.8382 trillion for the twelve months through March 2020, which would be a rise of £64.8 billion or half a point in GDP terms.
