October worst for UK public finances in 6 years
The UK government’s deficit-cutting drive has suffered a heavy blow ahead of its spending review on Wednesday after official figures showed the worst October for the public finances over the past six years.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the deficit swelled by 16% from a year earlier to £8.2bn in October.
This comes as the Chancellor George Osborne wants to eliminate the deficit on the public finances by the end of the decade.
He is now expected to unveil plans on November 25 to cut government department spending by around £20bn over the next four years.
Experts say the latest public finances show that the government will miss its deficit-cutting goals for this year. This means that it will redouble austerity measures.
“October’s poor borrowing numbers extinguish any lingering hope that the chancellor will be able to soften his austerity plans materially in next week’s autumn statement,” said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at the consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics.
As media reports say, the deficit for the financial year starting in April until October was smaller than a year earlier but not down by as much as the government would have liked at this stage.
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