FX.co ★ UK logs lowest budget deficit for February

The UK logged its smallest budget deficit for any February since 2008.
The Office for National Statistics reported that net borrowing excluding public sector banks was £6.9 billion ($10.2 billion) compared with £10.4 billion a year ago.
Experts polled by a financial news provider projected that the indicator should have fallen to £8.4 billion. Net borrowings contracted £3.5 billion annually.
“Extra borrowings needed for the current account balance mean that in the year-to-date period, public sector net borrowing totaled £81.8 billion, a decrease of £8.8 billion, or 9.7 percent compared with the same period in 2013/14,” the ONS statement reads.
In the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the government spending equaled £626.3 billion whereas income-tax receipts jumped to a record £153.9 billion. In late February, the public debt excluding state-owned banks approached £1 trillion 468.5 billion which accounts for 79.6% of GDP. The public debt is £83.6 billion up as compared to the same period last year.