By Chris Dorrell
The government borrowed £11.6bn in August, a £3bn uptick on the same month last year but still lower than official forecasts.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the only time the government has borrowed more in August was during the pandemic and immediately after the financial crisis.
In the year to August, the government borrowed £69.6bn, over £11bn less than forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
This brought total public sector debt to £2.59trn, around 98.8 per cent of GDP and 2.3 percentage points higher than August last year.
Banking crises in 2008, Brexit, the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have all raised public borrowing and squeezed growth.
Before the financial crisis, debt as a share of GDP was a little over 35 per cent.
A large chunk of the UK’s debt pile is also tied to an old measure of inflation known as the retail price index, which has taken off over the last two years, raising the debt servicing bill. Consumer price inflation fell to 6.7 per cent in August, a faster than projected fall.
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