LONDON--The U.K. economic recovery and ongoing austerity
measures helped the U.K. government hit its target for the
financial year to March 2014, data showed Wednesday.
The Office for National Statistics said the U.K. government
borrowed 107.7 billion pounds ($181 billion) in the year to March,
the lowest borrowing total in a complete financial year since
2008/09 and just below the Office for Budget responsibility's
GBP107.8 billion target.
In March this year, the government borrowed just GBP6.7 billion,
down from the GBP8.8 billion in February and much lower than the
GBP11.4 billion borrowed in March 2013.
That was well below the GBP10 billion level of borrowing that
economists had expected and also the lowest borrowing total for the
month of March since 2004.
The further reduction in government borrowing was due to a
strong increase in central government receipts.
The ONS data show that stamp duty tax on property, land and
shares was 37.2% higher in the financial year 2013/14 than 2012/13.
That contributed significantly to the GBP17.7 billion rise in
incoming receipts over the same period.
Central government spending, meanwhile, increased by just GBP9.1
billion in 2013/14 from the previous financial year, with March
contributing a GBP0.7 billion decrease in central government
departmental spending. Central government spending was GBP12.0
billion in the financial year 2012/13 compared with 2011/12.
Despite the brighter news on borrowing, the ONS figures also
showed that public sector net debt as a percentage of gross
domestic product hit a fresh record high in March of 75.8%.
Write to Ilona Billington at ilona.billington@wsj.com and
Nicholas Winning at nick.winning@wsj.com
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