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Public sector net borrowing March 2023

ended 25. April 2023

Public sector net borrowing (PSNB ex) in March 2023 was £21.5 billion, £16.3 billion more than in March 2022, and the second-highest March borrowing since monthly records began in 1993. Meanwhile, public sector net debt (PSND ex) at the end of March 2023 was £2,530.4 billion or around 99.6% of GDP, with the debt-to-GDP ratio at levels last seen in the early 1960s. The full report can be read >> here <<. Any thoughts on this, and what it means for the economy and markets, send them over ASAP as this story is BREAKING.

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Independent Financial Adviser at Mather and Murray Financial
This data needs to be looked at in the round. February saw better than cleared figures as self assessment payments seem to have been made early. That would suggest that March’s figures would be worse as these receipts wouldn’t come in twice. Simply, there was no good news in February. The finances are in poor shape, with borrowing out of controls what’s worse, is when you look at public service and the state of our roads, you’re left to wonder where the moneys gone?
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Mark Grant
Business Finance Adviser at The Business Finance Branch
Eye-watering and breathtaking are two ways of describing the scale of national debt when compared to historical levels, but the support provided to individuals and businesses with their energy bills in the last year will account for a lot of the year-on-year increase. And behind the headline increases, net borrowing and net cash requirements were both less in March than the OBR had forecast. The history-making highs are the result of the cost of support provided in the pandemic, with furlough, self-employed support and the Super Deduction tax relief helping many businesses and staff get through that period and invest to grow again as they came out of it. Businesses and governments can only now deal with what is in front of them, and tax incentives for investment and growth like Full-Expensing on capital expenditure can contribute to an improvement in future government borrowing requirements.