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BRITAIN-FINANCE-BUDGET-DEBT
Britain’s deficit hits 17-year low
LONDON, April 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Britain’s deficit improved last year to
reach its lowest level for 17 years on bumper tax revenues and lingering
state austerity, official data showed Wednesday.
Public sector net borrowing stood at o24.7 billion ($32 billion, 28.6
billion euros) in the year to March, the Office for National Statistics said
in a statement.
That contrasted with o41.8 billion in the previous financial year.
The deficit — the UK government’s net borrowing over 12 months through to
the end of March — was meanwhile only 1.2 percent of the country’s annual
gross domestic product, or everything that it produced.
This was down from a huge 9.9 percent at the height of the global
financial crisis almost a decade earlier after which the UK economy suffered
from years of state austerity.
Analysts said the low deficit gave the Treasury led by Chancellor of the
Exchequer Philip Hammond breathing space in the event of either a smooth or
hard Brexit.
“Another fall in the budget deficit to just 1.2 percent of GDP in 2018/19
puts the public finances on a sustainable footing and gives the chancellor
room to provide a ‘deal dividend’ if there is a Brexit deal or to support the
economy if the UK leaves the EU without a deal,” noted the Capital Economics
research group.
Britain will have a o26.6-billion war chest to battle the potential damage
of its exit from the European Union, a government oversight body announced in
March.
Or the money could be used to help improve current sluggish British
economic growth should the UK depart with a deal struck between London and
Brussels.
BSS/AFP/HR/0942