The UK recorded a budget deficit of 10.7 billion pounds ($13.8 billion) in February, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) report.
The figure increased by 100 million pounds compared to February last year, while economists, on average, expected the deficit to decrease to 6.6 billion pounds.
Last month, budget revenues increased by 3.7 billion pounds annually to 96.9 billion pounds. In comparison, expenditures increased by 3.8 billion pounds to 107.6 billion pounds. The cost of servicing the state debt amounted to 7.4 billion pounds, which is still at the previous year’s level.
Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, which started in April 2024, the total volume of new government borrowings amounted to 132.2 billion pounds, an increase of 14.7 billion pounds compared to the same period a year earlier.
The figure is 20.4 billion pounds higher than the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast.
At the end of February, the UK’s public debt (excluding borrowings by state-owned banks) amounted to about 95.5% of the country’s GDP. This ratio is close to the record level of the early 1960s.