Osborne Under Pressure as U.K. Budget Deficit Widens

Britain’s budget deficit unexpectedly widened in March, intensifying pressure on Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to keep squeezing spending as austerity strains governments across Europe.

Net borrowing excluding support for banks was 18.2 billion pounds ($29.4 billion), up from 18 billion pounds a year earlier and the most since November 2010, the Office for National Statistics said in London today. The median of 20 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey was for a shortfall of 16 billion pounds. Spending rose 4.2 percent and tax revenue climbed 1.4 percent.