Lockdown ended, the economy reopened – and public sector borrowing went up. Provisional figures for 2022/23 released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning show that the government borrowed £139.2 billion. This is an increase of £18.1 billion on the previous year, when the economy was still being disrupted by Covid. The figure was made much worse by figures for March this year, when the government borrowed £21.5 billion – £16.3 billion more than in March 2022.
A huge surge in borrowing during the pandemic was to be expected. The government was, after all, paying the wages of 9 million people at one stage through the furlough scheme. Tax revenue was slashed as businesses were put into hibernation. But when the economy reopens, shouldn’t the public finances recover?
What makes the borrowing figures all the more remarkable is that Britain has not, at least not yet, fallen into recession.
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