Public Sector Finances For February

The public sector finances bulletin from the ONS says that there was a current budget deficit of £6bn in February 2010, net borrowing of £12.4bn and net debt of £857.5bn at the end of February 2010. This compares with a current budget deficit of £2.5bn, net borrowing of £8.8bn and net debt of £712.4bn in February 2009.

The public sector net borrowing figure is represented by net investment of £6.3bn and the current budget deficit of £6bn compared to the £2.5bn deficit of 2009 accounts for the change in the borrowing figure. The components of public sector borrowing are central government at £11.3bn, local government at £2.2bn and public corporations at-£1.1bn. There is quite a difference in borrowing between April-February 2008-9 and 2009-2010 with an increase of £69bn in central government borrowing accounting for the vast majority of it.

Net borrowing excluding financial interventions for Q3 2009 was £49.4bn and net debt excluding financial interventions at the end of December 2009 increased to £741.6bn from £596.9bn in the previous year.

Total current receipts were £42.6bn in February 2010 comapred with £41.1bn in 2009. Total current expenditure was £48.6bn in February 2010 compared with £42.3bn in 2009. The public sector net cash requirement was £7.7bn, £3bn more than in February 2009.