Borrowing hit £14.4bn in the month of June, £500m higher than in the same month last year, according to official data.
Public finance figures published by the Office for National Statistics today also revealed that the current budget deficit was higher than it was last summer. The deficit stood at £13bn in June 2012, £600m more than the June 2011 figure of £12.4bn.
But between April and June this year, net borrowing totalled £14.9bn, £23.5bn lower than in the same period last year. These borrowing figures exclude two one-off transactions which occurred in April: the transfer to government of the £28bn assets in the Royal Mail pension plan and £2.3bn in profits following closure of the Bank of England’s Special Liquidity Scheme.
Andrew Goodwin, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said that, overall, the figures showed June had been another ‘disappointing’ month as the deficit continues to accelerate.
He said: ‘Obviously these figures can be prone to revision, but even so things don’t look good at the moment. On the current budget measure the deficit is already running £6.5bn ahead of 2011/12 after just three months.
‘Given that the OBR forecast has the deficit falling by £3bn in 2012/13 there is a lot of ground to claw back to even get close, unless we get some fairly sizeable revisions to this data.’
There was an increase in central government receipts over the year. In June this year, the government accrued receipts of £40.9bn, £1.4bn or 3.6% higher than in June 2011. For the year to date, receipts were £122.2bn, £3bn or 2.5% higher than in the same period the previous year.
Central government expenditure in June as £52.4bn, £400m higher than it was in June 2011.