PRESS: ONS revises down UK government borrowing after VAT error

(Alliance News) - The Office for National Statistics on Wednesday revised down UK government borrowing figures for the current fiscal year by GBP2 billion following an error in the tax receipts used to calculate the data, the Financial Times reported.

The ONS said on Wednesday that HM Revenue & Customs had alerted it to inaccuracies in value-added tax receipts, the statistics agency relied on for its estimates for government borrowing published on September 19.

As a result of the errors, which cover the period from January to August this year, the ONS cut its estimate for government borrowing for the current fiscal year, which began in April, by GBP2 billion. It also reduced the borrowing figure for the previous fiscal year by GBP1 billion.

Correcting for the errors, the ONS said borrowing for the fiscal year to August was GBP81.8 billion, down from the GBP83.8 billion initially reported in its September 19 release.

The total is still above the GBP72.4 billion forecast for the period by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK's official fiscal watchdog.

Earlier this year, the ONS had to revise forecasts for consumer price inflation and retail sales, while there have also been delays to producer price inflation data.

By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter

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