Government hits 10-year low for September borrowing

20 Oct 17

The government borrowed £5.9bn in September, its lowest September net borrowing since 2007.

The Office for National Statistics today released the public finance figures for September, which showed that the government borrowed £700m less last month than at the same time last year.

The figures also showed that public sector net borrowing, excluding that by public sector banks, decreased by £2.5bn to £32.5bn in the year to date compared with the same period in 2016 – year to date net borrowing has not been lower since 2007.

According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the forecast for public sector borrowing will be £58.3bn during the current financial year – £12.6bn up on the outturn net borrowing recorded for 2016-17.

At the end of September, the government’s net debt was £1,785.3bn – equivalent to 87.2% of GDP, an increase of £145.2bn or 4.4 percentage points as a ratio of GDP on September 2016.

A Treasury spokesman said: “Whilst we’ve made great progress getting the deficit down by over two thirds, government borrowing is still far too high at over £150m a day.

“We will continue to take a balanced approach that deals with our debts and allows us to invest in our public services.”

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