Government borrowing remained high in February at £19.1 billion. With one month of the fiscal year remaining, borrowing has reached £278.8 billion. That far exceeds the previous annual record set at the height of the financial crisis in 2009-10 (£157.7 billion). But it looks set to undershoot our latest estimate for borrowing in 2020-21 (on a like-for-like basis with the published ONS data) of £327.4 billion, thanks to even greater underspending by government departments than our forecast assumes.
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Record budget deficit could undershoot our latest forecast
March 19th, 2021 | What's new, Monthly public finances release
Government borrowing remained high in February at £19.1 billion. With one month of the fiscal year remaining, borrowing has reached £278.8 billion. That far exceeds the previous annual record set at the height of the financial crisis in 2009-10 (£157.7 billion). But it looks set to undershoot our latest estimate for borrowing in 2020-21 (on a like-for-like basis with the published ONS data) of £327.4 billion, thanks to even greater underspending by government departments than our forecast assumes.
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