This is why debt is expected to have grown in November, ahead of Omicron surge

With debt having risen higher compared to GDP than at any point since the 1960 during the pandemic, Tuesday’s public sector borrowing figures are expected to show another expansion in debt.

However, as the figures will pre-date the Omicron spread, the amount that public bodies are borrowing each month is likely to fall.

Last month the Office for National Statistics reported a fall in the amount of money that the public sector borrowed in October, which comes off year-long highs during the pandemic.

Ministers ramped up borrowing, pushing the UK’s debt levels to their highest point in decades. The extra borrowing was needed as the Government took extraordinary steps to prop up the economy during the series of lockdowns that were implemented by ministers.

Lockdowns first started in March last year, and came with a promise that the Government would pull out all the stops to ensure that businesses could survive, and could keep staff on payroll.

At the height of the pandemic billions of pounds were supporting furloughed workers.

These workers and many businesses were paying less tax, so the Government was forced to borrow more money just to get cash in through the door.

As the economy reopened in recent months this trend started to reverse.

The ONS reported that net borrowing had reached £18.8 billion in October, down by £200 million compared to a year earlier.

Because of a lag in when the figures are published, Tuesday’s borrowing data will not show the impact from a recent slowdown caused by the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

In recent weeks the economy has started to be affected again as people stay at home and restrictions start ramping up. This is likely to result in the Government getting less tax than it would otherwise have expected in the months ahead.

Last month Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The unprecedented support that the Government provided throughout the pandemic protected millions of jobs and businesses, but also left us with much higher public debt. It is right that we now strengthen our public finances for future generation.”