Government borrowing remained unchanged last month amid growing expectations George Osborne will abandon his deadline to start lowering UK debt within three years.
Public-sector net borrowing, excluding interventions such as bank bailouts, was £14.4 billion in August, equal to borrowing in the same month last year.
It will pile pressure on the Chancellor, who is expected to announce in December's autumn statement that he will be unable to start bringing down debt as a percentage of GDP in 2015/16.
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