UK public finances post surprise surplus

Britain's public finances unexpectedly swung into the black in April, marking a strong start to the new fiscal year, official data showed on Friday.
But back revisions put borrowing for the year ending March 2006 even further above Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's forecast than first thought.
The Office for National Statistics said the government's preferred accruals-based measure of public finances, public sector net borrowing, was -1.39 billion pounds in April, compared with economists' forecasts of 0.8 billion pounds.
That was a marked improvement on -859 million pounds a year ago and the biggest April surplus in six years. But back revisions meant PSNB for the fiscal year ending March 2006 was 1.1 billion pounds higher than initially reported at 38.9 billion pounds - well above Brown's 37.1 billion pound forecast.
On the receipts side, there was a 6.7 percent annual rise in taxes on production. The current budget deficit for the full financial year was a billion pounds bigger than initially at 11.8 billion pounds.