United Kingdom’s Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB) figure showed that the public sector borrowed £7.47 billion in excess of what it raised as income during October. According to the data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) on Friday, the deficit was higher than what analysts were expecting (£5.30 billion) and compared to last year’s October data, there was an increase by more than £1 billion.

The UK government’s borrowing from April 2015 to October 2015 is at £54.3 billion and there is evidence for those concerned that it could not meet the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast for £69.5 billion for the financial year April 2015 to March 2016. Even though there is a surplus during January of each year due to a stream of self-assessment income tax receipts, it looks like that Chancellor George Osborne will find difficulties in restricting government borrowing to only £15 billion between now and the end of March 2016 and therefore achieve the target set.

The UK Treasury said that the economy’s rebalancing has not been achieved yet and that the level of government borrowing is too high. While austerity measures were taken, during the current financial year, the UK government spending increased by more that 1% to £403 billion. This is mainly due to the exemption of the health budget from the austerity measures, and also the increase of the basic pension benefit by at least 2.5%. It is now possible that George Osborne might amend the PSNB forecast for the financial year during the upcoming HM Treasury’s Autumn Forecast Statement, due on Wednesday 25 November at 12:30 GMT.

The GBP/USD on Friday decreased by 0.6% at 1.519. It erased any gains previously achieved during last week, and so on a weekly basis it incurred losses by 0.2%. The pound even decreased marginally against the struggling euro by 0.1% to 0.70067.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a possible U.S. interest rate increase continues to be priced in as the release of the latest Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting minutes revealed the policymakers’ growing confidence on improving economic conditions. According to the October meeting’s minutes, FOMC members see an improvement of the labour market conditions, as well as the U.S. inflation moving towards the 2% annual target. The report also stated that the U.S. economy has weathered instability in global markets without signs of stress.