Fiscal Smoke & Mirrors

 

Recent figures from the Government independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) show that public borrowing was £7.5 billion in December 2015. Given that this was £4.3 billion lower than December 2014, this was quite a result.

 

Or was it?

 

Now come on, you know the rules by now……always believe there is more to the story than just the headline we are force fed on!

 

The December 2015 borrowing figure of £7.5 billion takes borrowing for the financial year to date to £74.2 billion. This makes the running total already above the £68.9 billion forecast for the whole fiscal year by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). And there are still 3 months to go!

 

So there you have it…..the real story. After all of the Public Sector cuts and austerity measures, the debt is still way off target. And just to cheer you up further……total public sector debt (excluding support for banks) now stands at £1.54 trillion.

 

And for dramatic effect, that’s £1,540,000,000,000.