UK borrowing falls in early boost for new chancellor John Healey

Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said: “There’s no escaping the fact that the public finances are fragile and that there is limited scope for extra borrowing.”

Midway through May the combination of weaker real GDP growth, expectations of higher inflation and interest rates and a jump in gilt yields was set to carve more than £10bn off the headroom to about...

Capital Economics analyst Ruth Gregory agreed that there was risk in the public’s view of the Bank of England as policymakers “won’t want to be criticised for raising rates too late and too slowly”...