Government Borrowing Shoots Above Forecasts in Latest Reeves Blow – Guido Fawkes

Government Borrowing Shoots Above Forecasts in Latest Reeves Blow

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New figures from the Office for National Statistics this morning show government borrowing to be higher than expected at £10.7 billion in February – it was expected to be £6.5 billion. It is the fourth highest February borrowing since records began back in 1993…

January’s surplus has been revised downwards to £13.3 billion. At the budget the OBR forecast £127.5 billion of borrowing the 12-month financial year ending in March. In 11 months that has already reached £132.2 billion. Shadow business and trade secretary Andrew Griffith says it “takes a certain level of incompetence to fiddle your own fiscal rules and then to still miss them.” Responding for the government chief Treasury secretary Darren Jones says: “We must go further & faster to create an agile & productive state that works for people… At the core of this urgent mission is sound public finances based on our non-negotiable fiscal rules.” On that front the Treasury says it will be demanding extensive access to real time departmental spending data in an efficiency drive. That’ll be popular…

The OBR is privately delivering another set of forecasts to Reeves today – the Telegraph reports it has halved its growth expectation for 2025. Tough for the Chancellor ahead of her budget-cutting Spring Forecast on Wednesday…