UK Public-Sector Borrowing Climbs on Year, Narrowing Room for Tax Breaks

U.K. public-sector borrowing grew on year in October, an indication that finance chief Jeremy Hunt will find little fiscal headroom to pass tax cuts in Wednesday’s autumn budget statement.

Public-sector net borrowing, excluding banks, was 14.9 billion pounds ($16.30 billion) in October, a jump of GBP4.5 billion from the GBP10.5 billion in the same month of last year, according to data from the Office of National Statistics published Tuesday.