Public sector borrowing was less than forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility – providing hopes that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will be able to deliver tax cuts.
The budget deficit between April and July was £56.6bn, according to the Office for National Statistics, which was £11.3bn below the OBR’s latest forecasts.
5 things to start your day
1) Arm fires starting gun on US IPO after snubbing London | The Cambridge-based chipmaker rebuffed advances from Rishi Sunak to float in London
2) China facing ‘downward spiral’ as property crisis deepens | City banks slash growth forecasts amid calls for more proactive government support
3) Ex-Bank of England governor Mark Carney to chair billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s media empire | Threadneedle Street veteran joins the business as part of a broader leadership shake-up
4) Britain’s highest taxpayer doubles fortune to £8.5bn | Bumper dividend payout for XTX founder follows surge in company’s profits
5) Foreign interest in UK jobs outstrips EU after post-Brexit immigration overhaul | Post-Brexit immigration overhaul sees more foreign workers drawn to UK
What happened overnight
Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher as traders waited for signs of interest rate plans from this week’s Federal Reserve conference.
Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul rose. Shanghai declined. Oil prices edged lower.
The Nikkei 225 in Japan rose 0.8pc to 31,802.54 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 0.2pc to 17,653.43. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1pc to 3,090.13.
The Kospi in Seoul added 0.2pc to 2,515.07 while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 was less than 0.1pc lower at 7,113.30.
India’s Sensex opened up 0.1pc at 65,280.66. New Zealand and Singapore declined while other Southeast Asian markets advanced.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index rose Monday for its first gain in five days as tech stocks rallied.
The S&P 500 closed 0.7pc higher to close at to 4,399.77, the broad-based index’s first gain in five days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1pc to 34,463.69, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.6pc to 13,497.59.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury touched its highest level since 2007 after briefly climbing above 4.34pc.
