Sharp fall in government borrowing in December, figures show

UK government borrowing fell sharply last month, due to more income from taxes and higher National Insurance Contributions outweighing spending, figures show.

In December government borrowing - the difference between public spending and tax income - was £11.6bn, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

It is down £7.1bn - 38% - from the previous December, and lower than what many economists had predicted, but still higher than that borrowed in the same month in 2023.

Tom Davies, Deputy Director for the ONS public service division, said the fall was a result of "receipts being up strongly on last year whereas spending is only modestly higher".

Despite the annual fall, the December 2025 figure was the tenth highest for the month since records began in 1993, without adjusting for inflation.

And it remains higher than December 2023, when borrowing stood at £8.1bn.

The figures show the government received £7.7bn more – an 8.9% rise - in taxes in December 2025 than it did in the same month in 2024.

This comprised increases in income tax, corporation tax, VAT and National Insurance contributions (NIC), the ONS said – with changes to the rate of NIC paid by employers coming into effect in April last year.

Public spending in December also rose - partly caused by an increase in inflation-linked benefits.

It was provisionally estimated to be £92.9bn - £3.2bn (3.5%) more than in December 2024.

But this rise was more than outweighed by the increase in money collected through taxes and NIC contributions.

According to provisional estimates, borrowing over the financial year to December totalled £140.4bn, about £300m lower than the same period in 2024, the ONS said.

The borrowing figure was estimated as 4.6% of GDP - 0.2 percentage points down from the same period last year.

It was the third-highest level of borrowing over April-December on record, after those in 2020 and 2024.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, said the government was "stabilising the economy, reducing borrowing, rooting out waste in the public sector".

He said: "Last year we doubled our headroom and we are forecast to cut borrowing more than any other G7 country with borrowing set to be the lowest this year since before the pandemic."

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said it was the second year in a row Labour had "presided over record borrowing, outside the pandemic".

He said debt interest was "at almost double what we spend on defence", adding: "Only the Conservatives have a credible plan to restore stability to the public finances."

Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said public finances were "finally showing signs of improvement in recent months".

"What's more, a further improvement in January is on the way. Those figures will probably show a bumper set of self-assessment tax and capital gains tax (CGT) receipts reflecting the freeze on income tax thresholds and a disposal of assets due to the speculation that Reeves would raise CGT."

But she said the "big picture is that the pace of deficit reduction remains very slow".