Government to reveal borrowing data

Official figures will show if chancellor George Osborne is on target with his deficit-reduction programme Official figures being published on Thursday will reveal whether the government hit its public borrowing forecasts for the last financial year. Economists expect public borrowing for the year to March, excluding financial interventions such as bank bailouts, to modestly undershoot chancellor George Osborne’s expectations of £146bn by about £3.5bn. The final monthly public finance figures for the 2010-11 financial year are predicted to show borrowing increased by £18bn-19bn in March, bringing the total for the year to as much as £142.5bn. The chancellor has set out austerity measures including £81bn of spending cuts and January’s 20% hike in VAT, resulting in hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs being axed. Osborne’s forecast, set by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, was revised down from £148.5bn when he delivered the annual budget in March. Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said with the fiscal squeeze now kicking in, attention would now focus on how quickly the public finances improve over the coming months. He said: “The chancellor is looking to reduce the public sector net borrowing excluding financial interventions to £122bn in fiscal 2011-12. While this was raised in the March budget from a previous target of £117bn, it still looks challenging given the headwinds facing the economy.” The improved overall economic performance through the past year and the VAT hike should have lifted tax receipts compared with March 2010. Government borrowing Economics Budget deficit Budget Tax and spending George Osborne guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 21, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.