The UK government borrowed £120.6bn in the financial year to April 2013, slightly lower than the amount it borrowed the previous year.
The amount was just £0.3bn lower than the previous year's total of £120.9bn.
The government wants to eliminate the budget deficit by 2017-2018.
A Treasury spokesperson said the government was fixing the UK's economic problems, but Labour said the pace of deficit reduction was "catastrophically off course".
Borrowing in March fell to £15.1bn from £16.7bn a year earlier, excluding interventions such as bank bailouts, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Meanwhile, public sector net debt - the amount that the government has borrowed over successive deficits - is now £1.2 trillion, or about 75.4% of GDP, it said.
"Start Quote
End QuoteThe chancellor's fans will say: 'I told you so.' And most economists will say: 'So what?' "
The annual borrowing figure of £120.6bn excludes the effects of both the transfer of the Royal Mail pension scheme to the government and gains from the Bank of England's asset purchases for quantitative easing (QE).
Proceeds from the 4G mobile licences auction and another payment from the central bank in February boosted government coffers, said the ONS.
Interest that the Bank of England earns on holding government debt as a result of its so-called quantitative easing programme is transferred back to the Treasury.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had forecast that the deficit for the 2012-13 financial year would be £120.9bn, unchanged from the previous year.
"Start Quote
End Quote David Tinsley BNP Paribas chief UK economistTax revenues are very weak because the economy has been very weak"
Mr Osborne has pushed for spending cuts as part of a wider plan to reduce the deficit in order to protect the government's creditworthiness on international markets.
A Treasury spokesperson said: "Though it is taking time, the government is fixing this country's economic problems."
"The deficit is down by a third, a million and a quarter new private sector jobs have been created and interest rates are at near-record lows, benefiting households and businesses," she said.
But shadow treasury minister Chris Leslie said: "At this rate of deficit reduction, at less than a quarter of 1% a year, it would take 400 years to balance the books.
"Now remember," he added, referring to the government's earlier target, "George Osborne promised and David Cameron promised that they'd balance the books, totally - no more deficit - in two years' time by 2015. You can't be more catastrophically off course than that."
Bigger pictureLast week, Fitch became the second ratings agency to downgrade the UK's rating from the top notch level of AAA. Moody's had downgraded the UK's rating in February.
Also last week, the IMF cut its growth forecast for the UK, and its chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, urged the UK to rethink its austerity policy in the face of continuing weakness in the economy.
Rowena Crawford, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: "Whether borrowing is slightly lower or slightly higher in cash terms from one year to the next is not of any direct economic importance. What is important is the bigger picture."
While the deficit on the whole has fallen in cash terms by almost 25% between 2009-10 and 2011-12, th poor economic performance and subsequently weak government tax receipts mean that the deficit was largely unchanged from its 2011-2012 level, she said.
David Tinsley, chief UK economist at BNP Paribas, said: "There's a small crumb to be had from the fact that borrowing is less than last year, but really that's a political point not an economic one.
"The substantive point is that tax revenues are very weak because the economy - nominal GDP growth - has been very weak.
"The spending side looks better, the government seems to be delivering on spending reductions but failing on getting growth and therefore revenues, and that's why the fiscal position isn't improving. It's flatlining," he added.
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