ONS reveals latest public sector spending figures

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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