Osborne on Course to Miss Borrowing Target as Deficit Climbs

Britain’s budget deficit widened in the first six months of the fiscal year, leaving Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on course to overshoot his borrowing target.

Net borrowing excluding public-sector banks was 58 billion pounds ($94 billion) between April and September compared with 52.6 billion pounds a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said today. In September alone, the deficit was 11.8 billion pounds, more than the 10.1 billion pounds economist forecast in a Bloomberg survey and up from 10.3 billion pounds a year earlier. Tax income rose 3.1 percent and spending gained 3.7 percent.