Britain's public finances last month posted their worst November in at least 20 years as spending surged, raising speculation that Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will overshoot his borrowing forecasts. Economists said the sharp deterioration suggested that Brown may have been too optimistic earlier this month in expecting only a 34 billion pound shortfall this financial year and was in danger of breaking his own fiscal rules.
The Office for National Statistics said on Monday the public sector net cash requirement hit 8.97 billion pounds, the highest November out-turn since the series began in April 1984 and some three billion pounds worse than expected.
While that left the PSNCR in the fiscal year so far roughly the same as a year ago, the government's preferred accruals-based measure - public sector net borrowing - stood at 9.43 billion pounds, the highest since records began in 1993.
The current budget deficit, meanwhile, rose to 8.045 billion pounds, its highest since records began in April 1998, suggesting that Brown may have even less leeway on meeting his golden rule that the government borrows only to invest over the economic cycle.
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