More money than ever has been left over in the public finances due to more tax being paid, official figures show.<\/p>\n
January had the biggest budget surplus since records began in 1993, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).<\/p>\n
It meant the government received more money than it spent last month, leaving \u00a330.4bn left over.<\/p>\n
Money blog: Every Michelin-starred restaurant with a less than \u00a350 meal<\/a><\/p>\n It’s \u00a315.9bn more than the surplus in January 2025, although the figures are not adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n The surplus is even higher than anticipated by independent forecasters the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – about \u00a36.3bn bigger.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n While there was little change in government spending, the highest-ever recorded surplus resulted from revenue being “strongly up” and lower interest rates, the ONS said.<\/p>\n Self-assessed tax revenues were nearly \u00a36bn more than planned for and capital gains tax receipts surged.<\/p>\n Lower interest rates have meant borrowing money cost less.<\/p>\n The cost of borrowing was \u00a31.5bn in the month, \u00a35bn lower than the time last year.<\/p>\n A relief for Reeves<\/p>\n It’s been described as a “welcome relief” and “good news” for Chancellor Rachel Reeves by analysts from Big Four accounting firm PWC and economic research firm Pantheon Macroeconomics.<\/p>\n “This decline eases immediate pressure on the public finances”, PWC’s economist Nabil Taleb said.<\/p>\n Paying more on debt can mean public finances are more exposed to economic shocks.<\/p>\n But the path ahead is not without hazards for Ms Reeves.<\/p>\n The room she has to spend money before breaking her self-imposed fiscal rules – to bring down government debt and balance the budget by 2030 – has narrowed since the November budget.<\/p>\n Lower gross domestic product readings, a key economic measure, may already have eroded the sums Ms Reeves has to spend before breaking her fiscal rules.<\/p>\n Anaemic economic growth<\/a> and a rising unemployment rate<\/a> could mean tax takes stall.<\/p>\n And the January tax revenue figures could be a one-off.<\/p>\n The month is key for the exchequer because of the influx of self-assessed income tax receipts.<\/p>\n Further evidence economy ‘picked up smartly’<\/p>\n Good news for the economy also came in the form of retail sales, which recorded a far better than expected January.<\/p>\n The total volume of retail sales, which measures the quantity bought, increased by 1.8% last month, the ONS said.<\/p>\n It was the largest increase since May 2024.<\/p>\n There continued to be “strong” sales at online jewellers as they reported “demand had hit unprecedented levels”, the ONS added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More money than ever has been left over in the public finances due to more tax being paid,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[79001,72,113,45775,61,17691,60,144940,38422,38421,15047,6917,144939,144938],"class_list":{"0":"post-308651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-budget-surplus","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-government-spending","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-income-tax","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-office-for-budget-responsibility","16":"tag-office-for-national-statistics","17":"tag-ons","18":"tag-public-finances","19":"tag-reeves","20":"tag-tax-receipts","21":"tag-tax-revenues"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}