By Marcus Leach
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown the UK suffered its worst April for public sector net borrowing as tax receipts fell.
For the same time period last year public borrowing was £7.3 billion, where as this April the figure hit £10 billion, excluding financial interventions.
The ONS explained that tax receipts in April 2010 were boosted by a one-off bank payroll tax which raised £3.5 billion.
This April's figures were far higher than most analysts' expectations, which had the figure at about £6.5billion, and come as a surprising disappointment.
"The public finances have got off to a pretty bad start this year," Hetal Mehta, at Daiwa Capital Markets told the BBC.
The Government's borrowing figures brought good news as they were revised down to £139.4 billion from £141.1 billion for the year to March 2011.
The revision, according to ONS, was largely due to the boost in VAT tax from 17.% to 20%.
But the higher-than-expected borrowing in April pushed the government's debt to a record £910.1bn, or 60.1% of GDP.
"One-off factors affected borrowing, but it is clear from the downward revision to last year's borrowing figures that the government's deficit reduction strategy is making headway in dealing with our unsustainable deficit," a Treasury spokesman said.
