The Office for Budget Responsibility said lower-than-expected cash outlays by the government meant its accrued measure of public sector net borrowing (PSNB) could be revised down as more accurate estimates of government spending appear.

"We might therefore expect to see downward revisions to PSNB in future iterations of the public finances data and thus the errors relative to our March and November forecasts to increase," the OBR said.

(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)