LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government borrowed 27.4 billion pounds ($33.97 billion) last month, official data showed on Tuesday, the biggest December deficit on record.
A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to public sector net borrowing, excluding state-owned banks, of 17.75 billion pounds for December.
The Office for National Statistics said the large figure for borrowing in December was “largely because of a sharp rise in spending on energy support schemes and an increase in debt interest.”
($1 = 0.8065 pounds)
(Reporting by Andy Bruce and Sachin Ravikumar and Kate Holton)
