The monthly horror show represented by Britain's public finance statistics turned out to be slightly less horrific than feared. Only slightly though. Net borrowing was £14.8 billion last month, slightly slower than the £15.5 billion consensus. The August figures were revised a little lower.
So far in the current fiscal year net borrowing is £77.3 billion, compared with £33.8 billion for the corresponding period of 2008-9. On a pro rata basis (comparing with last year) that would point to an overshoot of the Treasury's £175 billion forecast but there are good reasons to think there may be more front-loading than usual, particularly if VAT goes back up on January 1.
More details here. Public sector net debt is now 59% of GDP, £825 billion, including the cost of the banking rescues.
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