The UK Government borrowed more than expected for the latest financial year, according to new official figures.
Public sector net borrowing rose to £151.9 billion in the year to the end of March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
This was £14.6 billion higher than the £137.3 billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The yearly figure was also £20.7 billion more than the same period a year earlier.
The ONS said it was the third-highest level of borrowing in any financial year since records began in 1947, behind the Covid pandemic in the year to 2021, and the 2010 financial year following the global crisis.
It comes as borrowing rose to £16.4 billion last month, the third-highest March borrowing since monthly records began, the new figures show.
Grant Fitzner, the ONS’s chief economist, said: “Our initial estimates suggest public sector borrowing rose almost £21 billion in the financial year just ended as, despite a substantial boost in income, expenditure rose by more, largely due to inflation-related costs, including higher pay and benefit increases.
“At the end of the financial year, debt remained close to the annual value of the output of the economy, at levels last seen in the early 1960s.”
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