Darling on course to meet borrowing forecasts
A better than expected set of public finance data for February released this morning suggests the government is on target to meet its borrowing forecasts for the current fiscal year.
The Office for National Statistics revealed that public sector net borrowing (PSNB) was £2.7bn last month, up from £2.5bn a year earlier. Analysts had pencilled in a figure of £2.8bn.
Despite the deficit being the largest for February since 1997, Chancellor Alistair Darling is still expected to match forecasts made in last week's Budget speech for net borrowing of £36.4bn in 2007/08.
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Public sector net borrowing for the year to date was £27.8bn, some £4.8bn more than at the same time last year.
Today's report also showed the public sector current budget was in surplus by £2bn in February versus £0.7bn the year before, leaving an annual deficit of £5.7bn, up from £3bn.
