The British government borrowed more money than expected in July,usually a good month for tax receipts, in a further sign of the country'scontinuing economic problems.
Official figures showed that public sector borrowing in July hit 600 millionpounds ($945 million), compared to a surplus of 2.8 billion pounds a year ago.Tax revenues for the month were down nearly 1 percent, with corporation taxrevenue falling by 10 percent.
The figures will open up the debate on the effectiveness of the U.K.government's austerity measures.
For the fiscal year which began in April, the Office for National Statistics onTuesday reported that public sector borrowing was 9.3 billion pounds ($14.7billion) higher than a year ago.