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Fiscal Policy · Government Debt · ONS · UK Public Borrowing
UK public sector net borrowing increased to GBP14.33 billion in February, marking the second-highest February figure on record since 1993, according to the Office for National Statistics, driven by central government debt interest payments.
This figure widened from GBP12.13 billion a year prior and swung from a GBP31.86 billion surplus in January 2026. The only higher February borrowing was GBP15.48 billion in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the fiscal year-to-date, borrowing totaled GBP125.9 billion, an 8.7% decrease from the previous year, yet it remains the fourth-highest April to February borrowing on record. The ONS provisionally estimated fiscal year borrowing to February 2026 at 4.1% of Gross Domestic Product, a 0.6 percentage point reduction from the same period last year.
Public sector net debt, excluding public sector banks, reached 93.1% of GDP by the end of February 2026, a level not observed since the early 1960s, as reported by Michael Hennessey of Alliance News.
