UK RECORDS BIGGEST BUDGET SURPLUS FOR JULY 2018; HIGHEST IN LAST 18 YEARS

Britain has recorded its biggest budget surplus of 2.0 billion GBP for the month of July this year. The surplus is highest in the last 18 years, according the official data released on Tuesday (21).

The new data release is expected to help the UK finance minister Philip Hammond to prepare his annual budget later this year.

The budget surplus of 2.0 billion GBP recorded in July 2018, excluding state-controlled banks, is more than double when compared to the data released during the same period last year.

In the first four months of the fiscal year 2018-19, higher seasonal inflow of income tax receipts pushed the budget deficit to 12.8 billion GBP, recording a fall of 40 per cent when compared to the same period in the last fiscal year.

UK finance minister is under pressure to announce more public spending in his budget which is expected to be presented in November 2018 after years of cuts in real terms to many areas of public spending. However, Hammond has said that he aims to bring down Britain’s high public debt.

Prime Minister Theresa May has already announced that more money will be spent on health care relaxing government’s grip on public sector spending. However, British economy hasn’t yet witnessed significant economic turmoils after it voted for Brexit in 2016 as analysts predicted earlier.

Hammond’s predecessor, previous finance minister George Osborne witnessed a deficit equal to nearly 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010. As of now, showing positive trend in the UK economy, the deficit stands at around 2 per cent of GDP, in line with the deficits of many other developed economies of the world.

UK’s Office of National Statistics (ONS) said, debt excluding the public sector banks and Bank of England’s stimulus measures, stood at 1.585 trillion GBP in the last month. The figure, 1.585 trillion GBP is 75.2 per cent of GDP and the lowest portion of economic output since August 2012.

ONS data also stated that income and value-added tax revenues were up 6 per cent during April-July period of 2018 while corporation tax revenues rose by 2 per cent.