LONDON, Mar 21 (04:18 PM PKT)(XINHUA/APP): Britain’s public borrowing surged to 19.1 billion pounds (about 26.6 billion U.S. dollars) in February, marking the highest February borrowing since monthly records began in 1993, the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Sunday. “The corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a substantial impact on the economy and subsequently on public sector borrowing and debt,” said the ONS. Meanwhile, the latest figures published by the British Office for Budget Responsibility indicated that the 278.8 billion pounds (about 388.2 billion dollars) borrowed by the public sector in the financial year-to-February could reach 354.6 billion pounds (about 493.7 billion dollars) by the end of March. Fraser Munro, public sector finance statistician at the ONS, tweeted that “annual borrowing has generally been falling since the financial crisis, however in the last 11 months, the public sector borrowed 278.8 billion pounds, around five times more than in the same period a year ago.” The public sector net debt (excluding public sector banks) at the end of February was equivalent to 97.5 percent of Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP), reaching the level last seen in the early 1960s, said the ONS. “The recent substantial increase in UK borrowing has led to … Continue reading Britain’s public borrowing surges to 19.1 billion pounds