Economy rebounds strongly

UK borrowing falls amid swift recovery Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show the Government borrowed £22.8bn last month, the second highest June total on record but £5.5bn lower than June last year. Borrowing was £69.5bn for the first quarter of the year, £18.9bn lower than the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast, indicating that the economy is recovering more quickly than expected. However, with inflation surging, the state spent a record £8.7bn in interest on repaying its debts last month - more than three times as much as the £2.7bn in interest payments seen in June 2020. The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that the lower-than-expected borrowing was likely to prove only temporary, and combined with rising debt interest costs, would leave the Chancellor Rishi Sunak with "very little room for manoeuvre" in his forthcoming Spending Review.