A SURGE in corporate tax receipts has helped to cut Exchequer borrowing and left the Government on course to substantially undershoot its Budget borrowing target.
Figures issued by the Department of Finance yesterday show that Exchequer borrowing in the first eight months of the year was £85 million, compared to £524 million in the same period last year.
The figures are significantly better than had been forecast, benefitting from strong growth in tax receipts and other timing factors, indicating that the Government's end-of-year borrowing requirement will be well below its target of £729 million.
Officials at the Department of Finance have already forecast that the final figures could be between £100 million and £150 million lower.
Total tax receipts in the eight months came to £8.07 billion compared with £7.22 billion in the same period last year.
Miscellaneous revenues came to £295.02 million against £238 million last year, while other receipt came to £188.5 million.
Supply services spending rose from £6.44 billion last year to £6.72 billion at the end of August.
Economists had expected the Government's borrowing requirement at the end of August would be between £200 million and £400 million.
German industrial output rose 0.2 per cent in July from the previous month, the fifth monthly rise in a row, but it slowed from 0.7 per cent growth in June, the economics ministry said yesterday. Output was down 1.6 per cent from July 1995, compared with a 0.8 per cent year-on-year decline in June, according to analysts' calculations based on Bundesbank statistics.
