UK government borrowing hits £77.3 billion in first five months of 2026-27

August 2026 borrowing came in at £18.3 billion — the second-highest August total on record — pushing the year-to-date figure £8.1 billion above the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast profile.

Public sector net borrowing reached £18.3 billion in August 2026, a 19.0 per cent rise compared with August 2025, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics on 22 September 2026. That makes it the second-highest August borrowing total on record in cash terms, behind only August 2020. The ONS said spending growth outpaced the increase in receipts during the month.

Across the first five months of the financial year — April to August 2026 — borrowing totalled £77.3 billion, equivalent to 2.5 per cent of GDP. That is £2.2 billion, or 2.7 per cent, below the same period in 2025. But it sits £8.1 billion above the monthly path set out in the OBR’s March 2026 forecast, prompting the fiscal watchdog to flag the overshoot in its monthly commentary published the same day.

The OBR’s March 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook projected full-year borrowing of £109.4 billion for 2026-27. Exceeding the forecast profile at this stage does not by itself mean that target will be missed — monthly estimates can be revised as more complete data become available, and the OBR noted the overshoot its ongoing monitoring rather than as a definitive signal.

Central government borrowing alone was £13.3 billion in August 2026, £1.6 billion higher than a year earlier.

The ONS placed the April-to-August total in historical context: it ranks as the 10th-lowest for that five-month period since comparable monthly records began in 1993. So while the trajectory is running ahead of the OBR’s profiled path, the absolute level is not historically extreme. All figures are initial estimates and subject to revision.