Britain has a surplus?

A milestone has been reached, somewhat earlier than officially expected, and I feel honour bound to take note of it. After the global financial crisis wreaked havoc on Britain’s public finances, part of the repair process has now been completed.
The current budget, the difference between day-to-day public spending and tax revenues moved back into surplus in the fiscal year just ended, 2017-18. This was the first time this has happened for 16 years. The deficit on this measure peaked at £100.4bn in 2009-10. Now it is surplus, admittedly by a tiny amount, £112m, but in surplus nonetheless.
In the context of the disappointing growth figures, a 0.1% increase in gross domestic product in the first quarter and just 1.2% over the past year, this is surprising.
In eight years, more than £100bn has been taken off the deficit. George Osborne’s original 2010 target, of eliminating the current budget deficit, has been achieved, admittedly a couple of years later than he hoped. He also hoped to still be around as chancellor to celebrate this moment but events intervened.

  Good for them. They now have a bit of liquidity and can reduce some short term interest charges.