23/04/2013

Slight Fall In Government Borrowing

The amount of borrowing by the UK Government has fallen to £120.6bn over the last financial year, the Office for National Statistics has said.

Borrowing also fell in the month of March, from £16.7bn in 2012 to £15.1bn in 2013, as spending cuts across various Government departments began.

Mr Osborne has pushed for spending cuts as part of a wider plan to slash the deficit in order to protect the government's creditworthiness on international markets.

The government wants to eliminate the budget deficit by 2017-2018.

The totals exclude the cost of bank bailouts, cash transfers from the Government's quantitative easing programme and a boost from the Royal Mail pension assets.

The findings come after Chancellor George Osborne was criticised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over his austerity programme, while Fitch Ratings became the second agency to strip Britain of its triple-A credit rating. Moody's downgraded the UK's rating in February.

A Treasury spokeswoman said: "Though it is taking time, the Government is fixing this country's economic problems.

"The deficit is down by a third, a million and a quarter new private sector jobs have been created and interest rates are at near-record lows, benefiting households and businesses."

(JP/CD)

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