Ignore the rhetoric: the deficit is growing

According to the latest ONS borrowing figures, the deficit for April was £6.3bn, around £2bn lower than expected. Public sector net borrowing for the previous year (2012/13) was revised down from £120.6bn to £119.5bn (compared to a deficit of £120.9bn in 2011/12).

According to the latest ONS borrowing figures, the deficit for April was £6.3bn, which is around £2bn lower than expected. Public sector net borrowing for the previous year (2012/13) was revised down from £120.6bn to £119.5bn, compared to a deficit of £120.9bn in 2011/12.

On the surface this would appear positive – the deficit is lower than expected; and less than at the same point last year.

However, if you take out the effects of the transfer of the Royal Mail Pension Plan and the QE coupons from the Bank of England, the deficit was actually £10.2bn last month – £1.3bn higher than last year.

In other words, don’t take the triumphalism of the Tory Party and its media cheerleaders at face value. The government is borrowing more than it was borrowing in 2012.

 

3 Responses to “Ignore the rhetoric: the deficit is growing”

  1. OldLb

    Adn you’ve left of the pensions

    Now when you were in power, that debt was going up at 736 bn a year.

    Why are you worried about 10 bn?

  2. Cole

    From the LB school of highly dubious statistics. And I wasn’t aware that LFF, which is not a Labour blog, was ever is power.

  3. LB

    Well its the ONS. (Office for national statistics) that has come up with the numbers.

    http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_263808.pdf

    Short pdf. Even you can read it.

    I’ll quote you the relevant parts.

    Levy (2012) explains that the last official figure for the state pension schemes’ obligations was produced by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD), as at 31 March 2005, at £1.347 trillion

    and

    In summary, the estimates in the new supplementary table indicate a total Government pension obligation, at the end of December 2010, of £5.01 trillion

    So 2010-2005 = 5 years

    5,010-1,347 = 3,663 billion increase over 5 years

    3.663 / 5 = 732.6 bn.

    So in your world of “dubious” I don’t like the facts, do you have an authorative source for your not liking what’s going on? Thought not.

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