By Andy Bruce
MANCHESTER, England, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Britain posted another bigger-than-expected budget deficit in November and borrowing in past months was revised higher, reinforcing signs of persistent strain on the public finances, official data showed on Friday.
The Office for National Statistics said public sector net borrowing was 11.7 billion pounds ($15.64 billion) in November.
While that marked the smallest November deficit since 2021, it still overshot compared to the market expectation. Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected 10.0 billion pounds of public sector net borrowing last month.
Finance minister Rachel Reeves last month set out a tax-raising budget to help build up a large buffer against meeting her fiscal rules, a decision that Friday’s data helps to justify.
The figures add to a pattern of the budget deficit surprising to the upside against economists’ forecasts so far this year – something that has happened in six out of the eight months of 2025/26 so far in the first estimate.
Borrowing in the first eight months of the financial year amounted to 132.2 billion pounds, a 10 billion-pound increase compared with the same point in 2024/25.
Borrowing for October alone was revised up to 21.2 billion pounds from an initial estimate of 17.4 billion pounds.
For the first seven months of 2025/26, the ONS revised up borrowing by 3.9 billion pounds – reflecting a downward revision to corporation tax receipts and an additional winter fuel payment. These were offset by local government spending that was lower than previously reported.
($1 = 0.7479 pounds)
(Writing by Andy Bruce; editing by William James)
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