UK posts budget surplus in July

Britain reported its biggest budget surplus for the month of July in 18 years on Tuesday, giving finance minister Philip Hammond some extra room for manoeuvre as he faces pressure to relax his grip on spending later this year.

The surplus, excluding state-controlled banks, stood at 2.0 billion pounds ($2.6 billion), more than double the figure in July last year and well above a median forecast of 1.1 billion pounds in a Reuters poll of economists, official data showed.

The improvement was driven by strong seasonal inflows of income tax, and reduced the deficit for the first four months of the financial year to 12.8 billion pounds, down 40 percent from the same period of last year.

Reuters

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Craig Erlam

Craig Erlam

Former Senior Market Analyst, UK & EMEA at OANDA
Based in London, Craig Erlam joined OANDA in 2015 as a market analyst. With many years of experience as a financial market analyst and trader, he focuses on both fundamental and technical analysis while producing macroeconomic commentary.

His views have been published in the Financial Times, Reuters, The Telegraph and the International Business Times, and he also appears as a regular guest commentator on the BBC, Bloomberg TV, FOX Business and SKY News.

Craig holds a full membership to the Society of Technical Analysts and is recognised as a Certified Financial Technician by the International Federation of Technical Analysts.