British public net borrowing climbs to 11.4bn in June

British public sector net borrowing was 11.4 billion pounds (19.5 billion U.S. dollars) in June 2014, 3.8 billion pounds higher than in June 2013, said Office for National Statistics (ONS) Tuesday.
The public deficit is slightly higher than market expectation consensus of 11.1 billion pounds.
Samuel Tombs, senior British Economist at Capital Economics, said in a note that June's public borrowing figures contain further signs that the coalition is struggling to bring the deficit down in line with the fiscal plans.
Though stronger economic growth than the government predicted back in March should help to boost tax receipts and reduce benefits spending faster than set out in the fiscal plans, June's borrowing numbers underline that the fiscal consolidation still has a long way to go yet before the public finances are restored to a sustainable footing, said Tombs.
In April, the OBR, independent fiscal watchdog to the Treasury, foretasted a full year deficit of 108 billion pounds in 2013/14 and a drop to 95.5 billion pounds in 2014/15. Borrowing fell to 6.6 percent of GDP in the last fiscal year. (1 pound = 1.71 U.S. dollars)