MNI BRIEF: Strong Tax Receipts Help UK Finances In January

UK government coffers recieved a boost in January, with strong tax reciepts pushing a surplus double the size of that recorded in the same month last year, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.

Borrowing excluding public sector banks was in surplus by £16.7 billion and the largest surplus since monthly records began in 1993 in nominal terms.

However, despit the strong tax reciepts, borrowing "in the year to January is only slightly lower than the same period last year," ONS Deputy Director for Public Sector Jessica Barnaby said.

Coming just a fortnight before the March budget, the data will no doubt offer the Government some additional scope for either modest new spending or additional tax cuts -- a fiscal easing that the Bank of England will need to take note of -- although as a proportion of gross domestic product, public sector debt is up on the year, and remains at levels last seen in the 1960s.