Public sector borrowing has increased official expectations with more than 20 billion pounds so far in this fiscal year, which has led to pressure on Chancellor Rachel Reeves before the spring statement next week.
The numbers of the National Statistics Office (ORS) show that in February alone, the government borrowed 10.7 billion pounds-which made it the fourth highest total of this month since the start of records in 1993 and higher than economists.
This brings the total general borrowing between April 2024 and February 2025 to 132.2 billion pounds – 20.4 billion pounds above 111.8 billion pounds by the budget responsibility office (OBR) at the time of October budget.
The data raised doubts about whether the advisor can fulfill its financial rules-the most prominent of which is the condition of ensuring daily spending covered with tax revenues within five years and reduced debt as a share of GDP in the last year of OBR expectations.
Economists now believe that Reeves is already narrow 9.9 billion pounds of maneuver, may have been significantly eroded due to slow economic growth and high borrowing costs.
“There may be a great room for the consultant to postpone the major tax decisions and spending on the autumn budget,” said Dennis Tatarkov, KPMG UK.
Alison Ring, the director of public sector and taxes at ICAEW, has chanted this view, indicating that the February numbers could “hand the forces (Reeves) before reviewing the planned spending in June.
ONS stated that the debt service in February remained high at 7.4 billion pounds – was created from the same month last year. The net net debt of the public sector is 95.5 % of GDP using the traditional scale, while the preferred procedure is the latest-financial obligations-by 82.9 %, an increase of 2.3 percentage points on an annual basis.
While tax revenues increased by 34.3 billion pounds to 941 billion pounds a year so far, public spending increased faster, an increase of 41.7 billion pounds to more than 1 trillion pounds.
With the expectation that the spring statement next week will include discounts in the new public spending, the government has already begun to limit the benefits of young people and the handicapped, noting that 5 billion pounds sterling.
Darren Jones, the main secretary of the Treasury, said: “We must go further and faster to create a graceful and fruitful state …
Meanwhile, the economic image is ambiguous with geopolitical tensions and market fluctuations. The Bank of England kept interest rates hanging by 4.5 % and pointed to a cautious path to alleviate. He has also warned that the universal uncertainty, which is fueled by a partial tariff policy, may partially change growth.
OBR is expected to widely review the forecast of GDP for 2025 of the growth of 2 % expected in October.
The markets responded with caution: the British pound fell 0.22 % against the dollar to $ 1.29, while FTSE fell 100 0.44 % to close at 8663.59.