Feb public finances hint at undershoot of forecast

January's PSNB figure was revised sharply downwards to just 43 million pounds from 4.339 billion pounds. The ONS said revisions to back data for the year had reduced overall borrowing for 2009/10 by 2.9 billion pounds.

The cash measure of borrowing came in at 7.703 billion pounds, again below forecasts for a reading of 11.0 billion but well above the 4.681 billion in February 2009.

Darling has pledged to halve its budget deficit over the next four years.

Debt as a percentage of gross domestic product was 60.3 percent in February, the second highest since records began in the 1974/75 tax year.

(Reporting by Matt Falloon and David Milliken; editing by John Stonestreet)