The public sector spent more money than it received in taxes and other income in December 2019 to the extent that it had to borrow £4.8bn, a figure £0.2bn less than the same month a year earlier, new data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.

Of this £4.8bn, the ONS revealed the central government borrowed £4.2bn while local government borrowed £1.4bn. The Bank of England’s (BoE’s) contribution to net borrowing was a surplus of £0.9bn.

Borrowing in the current financial year-to-date – from April 2019 up to December 2019 – was £54.6bn, a figure which the ONS found was £4.0bn more than in the same period last year.

The latest ONS data for public sector finances also revealed that debt, public sector net debt excluding public sector banks, was £1,819.0bn at the end of December 2019 – reflecting 80.8% of GDP.

The ONS announced that this was an increase of £35.5bn, but a decrease of 0.9%, from December 2018.

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