"In August 2014, the central government current budget deficit was 9.4 billion pounds, 0.1 billion pounds, or 1.1% lower than in August 2013. In recent years the current budget has been in deficit in most months."
- Office for National Statistics
According to data from British Bankers' Association, mortgage approvals in the United Kingdom dropped to the lowest level in one year in August, reaching 41,600 versus 42,800 a month ago. Experts, in turn, predicted a slight increase of the indicator. Britain's government is currently implementing the support scheme for those, who are willing to buy new property and take mortgage. A decrease in number of new approved mortgages may indicate on cooling property market as a whole. Housing prices in the U.K. have been registering a considerable increase in recent years, while some investors warned the Bank of England and the Government about negative consequences of it.
Besides real estate sector data, U.K. public finances showed weak performance in August, as budget deficit reached 11.6 billion pounds, up 6.1% from the previous year. This number, however, excludes payments of the Bank of England and temporary financial interventions. Therefore, during first five months of the current financial year the negative budget gap increased 6.2% on the annual basis to hit 45.4 billion pounds. As the Government is planning to push deficit down from last year's 6.5% of GDP to 5.5% this year, the Treasury announced a series of spending cuts with aim to reduce borrowing by 10%, just ahead the next General Election, which is supposed to take place in May 2015.
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