Britain's underlying public borrowing was lower than expected last month as government tax receipts far outpaced a small increase in spending, official statistics showed today.
The Office for National Statistics said government's preferred accruals-based measure of the public finances, public sector net borrowing (PSNB), was £1.3 billion in April.
That was much lower than economists's forecasts of £2.3 billion and was less than half the £2.8 billion in the same month a year ago.
The improvement in the first month of the new fiscal year may be welcome news for Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown although revisions left the PSNB for the year just ended in March up nearly £1 billion to £35.4 billion.
Mr Brown forecast the PSNB to fall in this fiscal year to just under £32 billion.
Analysts cautioned that it was far too soon to draw conclusions on whether Brown will meet his forecasts for the year or his fiscal golden rule, which states he may borrow only to invest over the cycle.
The public sector surplus on the current budget, the measure Brown uses for the golden rule, was only £200 million in deficit compared with £2.3 billion in the same month last year.
Still, tax receipts were looking in line with what Mr Brown had pencilled in, analysts said. Total current government receipts were up 9 per cent on a year ago, while current expenditure rose just 1.6 per cent.