LONDON (AFX) - There was a public sector net cash requirement of 9.452 bln stg (deficit) in December, compared with a downwardly revised deficit of 2.299 bln stg the month before, and a 9.159 bln deficit in the same month a year ago, according to provisional data released by National Statistics.
This is the largest December PSNCR on record, NS added. The AFX News median of analysts' forecast was for a December deficit of 9.0 bln stg.
In his November 8 pre-budget report, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown forecast a PSNCR surplus of 28.1 bln stg for the fiscal year to March 2001, which compares with an 8.7 bln stg surplus recorded in the fiscal year to March 2000.
Public sector net borrowing - the government's preferred measure of the public sector's financial position - stood at 2.712 bln stg in December, compared with 91 mln in the same month a year earlier.
Public sector net debt outstanding at the end of December amounted to 317.4 bln stg, equivalent to 32.9 pct of GDP. The public sector net debt percentage is at its lowest end-December level since monthly data began in March 1993, NS said.
A breakdown of the data revealed that total cash receipts in December were 1.0 bln stg, or 4.4 pct, higher than in the same month the year before at 24.2 bln stg.
Total inland revenue receipts rose by 300 mln stg from December 1999 to 9.3 bln, with income tax receipts falling 200 mln stg from their December 1999 level to 6.7 bln stg.
Customs and excise duties rose 100 mln stg to 7.7 bln, within which VAT receipts were up 400 mln stg year-on-year at 4.2 bln stg.
Cash outlays rose by 800 mln stg, or 2.3 pct, from December last year to 33.2 bln stg, while net departmental outlays rose 700 mln stg, or 2.6 pct, to 28.2 bln stg.