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| Energy bill help drives up March borrowing | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Government borrowing continued to surge in March due to the cost of supporting households with their energy bills. | |
| Borrowing, the difference between spending and tax income, was £21.5bn, last month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. | Borrowing, the difference between spending and tax income, was £21.5bn, last month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. |
| That is the second-highest March borrowing figure since monthly records began in 1993. | That is the second-highest March borrowing figure since monthly records began in 1993. |
| Meanwhile, borrowing for the financial year ending 31 March was estimated at £139.2bn. | |
| That was £18.1bn more than the previous year, and the fourth-highest annual figure since records began in 1946. | |
| However, it was less than the £152.4bn that had been predicted by the government's independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, at the time of last month's Budget. | |
| Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: "These numbers reflect the inevitable consequences of borrowing eye-watering sums to help families and businesses through a pandemic and [Vladimir] Putin's energy crisis. | |
| "We were right to do so because we have managed to keep unemployment at a near-record low and provided the average family more than £3,000 in cost-of-living support this year and last." | |
| However, he said the UK could not "borrow forever" and had a clear plan to get debt falling. | |
| The ONS said a rise in tax receipts in March was offset by higher spending on energy support for households and businesses. | |
| It has also been borrowing more to cover the cost of interest on its debt, which has been rising due to inflation. | |
| All in all, the ONS said public sector net debt at the end of March 2023 was £2.53 trillion - equivalent to around 99.6% of the value of the whole UK economy. | |
| That is a level not seen since the early 1960s. | |
| Mr Hunt has said he plans to get debt falling as a share of output - or GDP - in five years' time. | |
| Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG, told the BBC's Today programme: "The way things are at the moment it doesn't look like he will meet that target but it wouldn't be the first time a chancellor doesn't meet a target. | |
| "The important thing is that he still has the confidence of the markets so in the longer term, debt will go down and we won't have similar episodes like we had from last year." | |
| Related Topics | Related Topics |
| UK economy | UK economy |
| Office for National Statistics | Office for National Statistics |