The public sector was in surplus by £16.5bn in April, as a result of the one-off transfer of funds from the Royal Mail pension scheme to the Treasury, it was revealed today.
Ministers have taken over responsibility for the pension liabilities of the government-owned postal service, ahead of its possible privatisation. Transferring the scheme’s £28bn assets sent public spending figures into the black, the Office for National Statistics said.
Without the transfer, public sector net borrowing would have been around £11.5bn for the month, compared with borrowing of £9.1bn in the same period last year.
