Britain’s budget deficit almost doubled in February as taxes fell and spending surged, leaving Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne little room to meet his full-year goal as he prepares to announce the annual budget.
Net borrowing excluding support for banks was euro 18.25 billion ($24.1 billion), the highest for any February on record, compared with euro 10.69 billion a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said in London today. The median of 17 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey was for a shortfall of euro 9.61 billion .
Osborne has rejected calls to relax his program of cuts, saying warnings from Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service that Britain could lose its top credit rating reinforce the need to stick to his plan to erase the structural deficit by 2017.
For more: U.K. Budget Deficit Doubles as Taxes Fall - Businessweek
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