Government borrowing lower than expected in November
Government borrowing fell in the year to November as more money was raised from taxes and less money was spent on interest payments on the national debt, official data showed.
Borrowing (the difference between spending and taxes) was £11.2bn last month, £3.4bn less than in the same month last year and the lowest November figure so far in 2021.
Interest on debt fell by £4.7 billion to £3.0 billion, mainly due to lower inflation.
The government is also spending more cash on public services and welfare payments, the Office for National Statistics said.
Borrowing was lower than expected, with economists forecasting the figure to be around £13bn.
Ruth Gregory, deputy chief economist for the UK at Capital Economics, said Chancellor Rachel Reeves had a “Christmas-ending crisis” as borrowing was “lower” than expected. Come early”.
But she added that while the chancellor would be encouraged by the latest figures, the “weakness” of the UK economy meant further tax increases or spending cuts were “increasingly likely”.
Denis Tartakov, senior economist at KPMG UK, added that the government had been given some “temporary respite” due to lower interest repayments, but warned that the trend was “unlikely to continue given the recent Both actual and expected inflation rates have increased over the past month.”
