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British public fiscal deficit down by 11.1 bln pounds in 2014/15

Xinhua, April 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

British government reported Thursday that its public sector net borrowing excluding public sectors banks was 87.3 billion pounds (131 billion U.S. dollars), registering a decrease of 11.1 billion pounds compared with the financial year 2013/14.

British government saw a fiscal deficit of 7.4 billion pounds in March 2015, a decrease of 0.4 billion pounds compared with a year earlier, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It is slightly bigger than the market estimation consensus of seven billion pounds.

At the end of March, Britain's public sector net debt was 1,484.3 billion pounds, equivalent to 80.4 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). It was also 82.2 billion pounds higher than that in a year earlier, figures showed.

At the end of March 2015, General Government Gross Debt was 1,598.5 billion, accounting for 86.6 percent of GDP, and General Government Net Borrowing in the calendar year 2014 was 102.4 billion pounds or 5.7 percent of GDP, data also showed.

Vicky Redwood, Chief UK Economist at Capital Economics, said in an analysis piece that the last public finances figures before the general election brought some good news for the incumbent coalition, as the public fiscal deficit (87.3 billion pounds) in the 2014/15 financial year was below the government's Budget forecast of 90.2 billion pounds.

In March, British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced in the budget statement that the country's public fiscal deficit as a share of GDP is forecast to fall to 4.0 percent in 2015/16, and to reach a surplus of 0.2 percent of GDP in 2018/19.

Martin Beck, senior economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club, commented in a note:" Net Borrowing fell by 11.1 billion pounds in the last fiscal year realizing the benefits of stronger economic growth on tax revenues."

British government has taken a more cautious view of the outlook for both the economy and the public finances, but there is now a good chance that these expectations will be exceeded, suggesting that the next government will probably be able to achieve its borrowing targets with a lesser degree of fiscal consolidation than is currently assumed, said Beck. (1 pound = 1.50 U.S. dollars) Endit