British public fiscal deficit increases on EU budget contribution

British public sector net borrowing was 13.1 billion pounds (or 20 billion U.S. dollars) in December 2014 compared with 10.3 billion pounds a year earlier, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Thursday.

The scale of public deficit is bigger than the market expectation consensus. Analysts here in London note that the 2.9 billion pounds contribution to the European Union budget pushed up spending.

Public sector net borrowing excluding public sector banks from April to December 2014 was 86.3 billion pounds, a decrease of 0.1 billion pounds compared to the same period a year earlier, data showed.

At the end of December, Britain's public sector net debt excluding public sector banks was 1,483.3 billion pounds, equivalent to 80.9 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), figures showed. It was also 94.6 billion pounds higher than that in a year earlier.

David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), commented in a note that the current trends suggest that it would be difficult for the UK government to meet its target for this fiscal year.

In December, the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) raised its fiscal deficit forecast for the fiscal year 2014-2015 (began in April 2014) from 86.6 billion pounds to 91.3 billion pounds. (1 pound = 1.52 U.S. dollars) Endit