British Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr Gordon Brown amassed a record public surplus in the latest financial year, easily surpassing the forecasts he made in his budget only last month, official data revealed today.
Britain enjoyed a huge £37 billion cash surplus in the year to end March, nearly £3 billion better than Mr Brown forecast last month and swollen by £22.5 billion of receipts from the highly successful auction of new mobile phone licences.
The £37 billion surplus compared to a surplus of just £8.5 billion in the previous financial year.
The Inland Revenue enjoyed all-time record receipts for a March of £10.5 billion, up from £9.8 billion in the same month last year. This was mainly due to very buoyant income tax receipts.
Car production slumped by 29 per cent last month to just 131,000 compared to March last year. Output for the domestic market fell 13.5 per cent to 54,000 while production for export plunged 36.4 per cent to 77,000.