UK undershoots annual borrowing target by £700m

But Iran war likely to blow hole in Rachel Reeves’s carefully crafted fiscal ‘headroom’ in coming months

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The UK government came in below its annual borrowing target by £700m, official figures show – but the Iran war is likely to blow a hole in Rachel Reeves’s carefully calculated fiscal “headroom” over the coming months.

The government borrowed a net total of £132bn for the financial year ending in March, the Office for National Statistics said. This slightly undershot the £132.7bn that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had forecast just last month.