UK borrowing came in under forecast for June, and above it for the year so far

£16.0bn. That is what the UK public sector borrowed in June 2026, £7.9bn less than in the same month a year earlier, according to figures the Office for National Statistics released on July 21. The monthly figure came in £0.3bn below the forecast the Office for Budget Responsibility set out earlier this year, which on its own reads as a Treasury on track.

The year to date says otherwise. Borrowing across the financial year so far, April to June, reached £57.6bn, and while that is £3.7bn less than the same three months last year, it sits £2.7bn above the OBR forecast, a gap the ONS attributed partly to provisional data on public corporations. One month beat the forecast. The quarter is running over it.

Debt interest did most of it. Central government interest payable fell to £11.8bn in June, down 31.0 percent from a year earlier, because payments on index-linked gilts move with the Retail Prices Index and inflation has eased. It was still the fourth highest June on record. Public sector net debt stood at 94.9 percent of GDP at the end of the month, 0.4 percentage points higher than a year earlier.