LONDON, (Reuters) – The British government’s current borrowing was just one month over the previous year, according to official data. This puts Rishi Sunak, finance minister, in a comfortable position as he makes new forecasts.

The total amount borrowed for the first 11 month of the 2021/2022 fiscal year was 138.4Billion pounds. That’s 52% lower than the 290.9Billion pounds recorded between April 2020 and February 2021.

Borrowing for February was much more than anticipated at 13.1 Billion Pounds. This is over 5 billion pounds higher than economists predicted in a Reuters poll. However, this excess was largely offset by a 4.2 Billion pound increase to January’s surplus budget.

Sunak, who is scheduled to release updated borrowing and growth forecasts in the half-yearly financial statement on Wednesday morning, was keen to stress what he views as a limited opportunity to mitigate the effect of rising living costs.

He said that the ongoing uncertainty created by global shocks made it crucial to adopt a responsible approach towards the public finances after Tuesday’s publication of the data from the Office for National Statistics.

Borrowing for 2021/22 is on course to come in below the 183 billion pounds or 7.9% of gross domestic product forecast by the government’s Office for Budget Responsibility in October, largely thanks to stronger-than-expected tax revenue.

The 2020/21 GDP reached 14.8%, the highest level since World War Two. Sunak will have more cash now than he thought a month ago, to help offset the effect of the surge in energy and other prices. This is likely to result in the greatest squeeze on household incomes since at least 30 year.

However, economists believe he will offer limited assistance to households in most economic circumstances to cut government borrowing and increase tax revenues to help the country’s transition to 2024.

Sunak highlighted the fact that the rising inflation rate is driving up the costs of servicing Britain’s debt. Around a quarter pay an interest rate linked to retail price inflation.

“With inflation and interest rates still on the rise, it’s crucial that we don’t allow debt to spiral and burden future generations with further debt,” he said.

According to the ONS, debt interest payments totalling 8.2 billion pounds were 52% more than 2021 in February.

The ONS reported that the public sector net debt was 2.327 trillion pounds, or 94.7% GDP.

($1 = 0.7621 pound)