Government borrowing for October falls by £1.6 billion

According to official figures, government borrowing fell by more than expected to £4.8 billion in October thanks to record for tax revenues for the month.

The £4.8 billion figure was was £1.6 billion lower than for the same month last year.

The news come a day ahead of the Autumn Statement on Wednesday 23 November.

Economists had forecast borrowing to come in at £6 billion last month.

Chancellor, Philip Hammond, is expected to announce an extra £100 billion of public borrowing for the next five years, compared with what was planned in March, largely because the economy is expected to grow at a slower rate than previously thought.

Hammond has already indicated that he will ‘reset’ the UK's post-Brexit economic policy away from his predecessor George Osborne's aim of taking the government from a deficit to a surplus by 2020.

Instead, the Chancellor plans to put more investment into areas such as infrastructure.

Despite October's improvement, Samuel Tombs, of Pantheon Macroeconomics, says it doesn't compensate for the weak start to the year: "The higher-than-expected starting point for borrowing this year and weaker projections for GDP growth will compel the OBR to revise up sharply its forecast for borrowing in future years.

"The chancellor's warning at the weekend that he is 'highly constrained' suggests that there will be few sweeteners for the 'JAMs'—people 'just about managing'—in tomorrow's Autumn Statement."