UK public sector borrowing at highest since 1946

Britain's public sector borrowing for the first half of the fiscal year rose to the highest since 1946, at 77.3 billion pounds ($126.6 billion), official data showed Tuesday.

The Treasury has forecast that borrowing will accelerate in the second half of the year, to a full-year total of 175 billion pounds, due to the cost of bailouts, stimulus measures and lower tax revenues.

Borrowing in September was 14.8 billion pounds, the Office for National Statistics said, about half a billion below analysts' forecasts. In September 2008, borrowing amounted to 8.7 billion pounds.

___

On the Net: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/psf1009.pdf