The ONS had to admit today that it had overstated Public Sector Net Debt excluding banks by £18.5bn in past figures. £11bn of this was an error, and £7.5bn comes from updated figures. It is all part of a pattern of too much official gloom about our economic and financial position.
Last year to end March 2018 total additional state borrowing came in at £40.5bn, compared to the March budget forecast in 2017 of £58.3 bn. So that forecast was overstated by almost £18 bn.
Given these much better figures the Treasury needs to ask itself some questions about its spending and taxing policies, and ask why the official forecasts and figures find it so difficult to track what is going on.
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