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| UK government borrowing lower than expected in July | UK government borrowing lower than expected in July |
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| UK government borrowing was lower than expected in July, following a rise in tax and National Insurance receipts. | |
| Borrowing - the difference between public spending and tax income - was £1.1bn in July, which was £2.3bn less than the same month last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. | |
| It was the lowest July figure for three years, the ONS said, following the government's tax rises in April. | |
| Borrowing over the first four months of the financial year has now reached £60bn, the ONS said, which is up £6.7bn from the same period last year. | Borrowing over the first four months of the financial year has now reached £60bn, the ONS said, which is up £6.7bn from the same period last year. |
| That total for the year so far is in line with what the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the official independent forecaster, had predicted in March. | |
| July saw income tax receipts rise by £4.5bn, the ONS said, and there was also an increase from National Insurance (NI) contributions. The rate of employers' NI contributions was increased by the government in April. | |
| Despite the lower-than-expected borrowing figure for July, Dennis Tatarkov, senior economist at KPMG UK said "longer-term picture for public finances remains challenging". | |
| "The coming Budget is likely to focus on addressing any potential shortfall against current fiscal targets, which we estimate at £26.2bn. However, the assessment of the shortfall crucially depends on changes to the OBR's forecast." |