UK borrowing likely to undershoot estimate

LONDON: Britain's budget watchdog said on Friday the country's record-breaking government borrowing could come in lower this financial year than it had forecast earlier this month due to weaker public spending.

"With one month of the fiscal year remaining, borrowing has reached 278.8 billion pounds. That far exceeds the previous annual record set at the height of the financial crisis in 2009-10," the Office for Budget Responsibility said.

"But it looks set to undershoot our latest estimate for borrowing in 2020-21 (on a like-for-like basis with the published ONS data) of 327.4 billion pounds, thanks to even greater under-spending by government departments than our forecast assumes."

Data published earlier on Friday showed Britain's budget deficit grew by less than expected in the first two months of 2021.