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The UK public finances went up to a lesser excess than expected in January, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves struggles to keep her budget plans on the right track and start the economy.
The public sector was in excess of £ 15.4 billion in January, 0.8bn £ more than last year and the highest seen in that month since 1993, the Office for National Statistics on Friday said, citing record income and Receipt of capital profits taxes.
However, this was even smaller than the January surplus £ 20 billion for budget responsibility waited for the last time, along with the October budget.
Borrowing for the financial year until January was higher than a year earlier, reaching £ 118.2bn -11.8bn more than at the same point in the 2023-24 financial year, said Ons, and higher than 105.4 The office for the Office for Budget Responsibility was waiting in October.
Alex Kerr, an United Kingdom economist at the Capital Economy Consultancy, said that “direction of bad news” in the latest economic data underlined the difficult choices the Chancellor faced.
While the pressure raised for the government to engage in higher protection spending, “OBR is likely to conclude that the Chancellor’s head room against its fiscal rules has been deleted,” he said.
“The UK fiscal position remains worrying,” said Dennis Tatarkov, senior economist at the UK CPC.
“If the Chancellor remains committed to its fiscal objectives, then the spring statement may need to contain more tax and expense changes,” he added.
A surplus often occurs at the beginning of the calendar year because self -evaluated income and capital earnings taxes due to the end of January.
Ines said the bills from these 36.2 billion £ taxes in January 2025 were 3.8bn £ more than a year ago and the highest for January since the start of monthly data in 1999 – however they did not still play OB predictions .
Darren Jones, the main secretary of the treasure, said the government was “committed to providing economic stability and meeting our non -negotiable fiscal rules”.
This is a developing story
This article has been changed to reflect the fact that January surplus in public finances did not expect expectations
