Rachel Reeves started her job as Chancellor with a bold-move: giving state workers big pay-rises that cost £9.4bn (which was more than inflation rates). She then made a £40bn tax plan and wanted to get more money through borrowing to pay for bigger public spending
The October numbers dont look good - government borrowed £17.4bn which is way higher than what smart-people thought it would be. The Office for National Statistics shows that day-to-day costs went up by £2.5bn to £36.9bn: this includes both worker pay-rises and other stuff that got more expensive
Running costs are getting really high; debt payments reached £9.1bn last month which is the most since records started back in ʼ97. The budget-watchdog thinks total borrowing will hit £127.5bn this year (thats a lot of money)
There are some not-so-good things that might happen:
* Jobs could go down because of new tax rules
* Interest rates might stay high for longer
* Global money-stuff could get messy if Donald Trump comes back
* Tax money might not be as much as hoped
Matt Swannell from EY Item Club thinks the numbers are tight: “The way things are going with interest rates since the Budget means theres even less room to move around with money decisions“
The governments total debt is now at 97.5% of what the whole country makes in a year - but if you look at it the way the Chancellor likes to count it its more like 83.7%. Darren Jones from Treasury says they are trying to make things better but wont do anything risky with public money