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Britain’s gov’t borrowing drops in September

20 October 2012 02:03 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Britain’s public sector borrowed 12.8 billion pounds (20.5 billion U.S. dollars) in September, less than the 13.5 billion pounds borrowed in the same period of last year, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Friday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

This was the second straight monthly improvement in the figure, giving a hope for the government to fulfill its deficit cutting target for this year.

Public sector current budget deficit was 11.2 billion pounds in September, which is 0.4 billion pounds lower deficit than that in September 2011.

The ONS said public sector net debt was 1,065.4 billion pounds at the end of September 2012, equivalent to 67.9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

British Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasted the government borrowing of 120 billion pounds this year, but some research bodies believed that it would fail to meet the target.

OBR forecast that British government borrowing would be 120 billion pounds for 2012-2013 fiscal year starting from April compared with 122 billion pounds in 2011-2012.

Britain’s 1.5 trillion pound economy is the third-largest in the 27-country European Union after Germany and France. The country has been in recession for the last nine months, but the economy is forecasted to return to growth in the third quarter of this year. The ONS is expected to publish the figure Britain’s economic growth next week. (1 pound = 1.60 U.S. dollars)