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| Government borrowing falls by £6.6bn | Government borrowing falls by £6.6bn |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Government borrowing fell £6.6bn in the year to October compared with a year earlier, official figures show. | Government borrowing fell £6.6bn in the year to October compared with a year earlier, official figures show. |
| Public sector net debt is £54.3bn for the year to date, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. | |
| In March the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast borrowing would be £69.5bn this yea, compared with £90.1bn last year. | |
| The latest borrowing figures come a week before the chancellor delivers his Autumn Statement. | The latest borrowing figures come a week before the chancellor delivers his Autumn Statement. |
| But in the month itself public sector net borrowing, excluding the money borrowed to rescue the UK's banking industry during the financial crisis, rose £1.1bn compared with the same month a year earlier to £8.2bn. | |
| The borrowing figure is the worst October number for six years. But the ONS warned monthly figures remain volatile. | |
| In order to meet his £69.5bn borrowing target for this year Chancellor, George Osborne, will need to borrow just £15bn between now and April. an unlikely prospect which will raise expectations that the OBR will be forced to raise its forecast for government borrowing this year, next week. | |
| The latest figures also call into question Mr Osborne's ability to achieve his pledge of a balanced budget by 2019. | |
| A Treasury spokesperson said the public sector finance figures show the job of rebalancing the economic was " not yet done" adding "government borrowing remains too high". | |
| Last month, economist, Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics said: "If the current trend continues, borrowing in 2015-16 as a whole will come in at about £78bn, much lower than 2014-15's total. | |
| "Admittedly, this would be above the OBR's forecast... but there is still plenty of the fiscal year to go. So there's no need for the chancellor to panic yet." | |
| Government borrowing in the 12 months to October stood at £70bn. The total national debt now stands at £1.5 trillion, or 80.5% of the UK's annual economic output |