UK is briefly in the black – but fixing the public finances will take time | Larry Elliott

Repairing the hole in the public finances after the financial crash is taking a lot longer than it did after previous recessions

The government was in the happy - and unusual - position of being in the black in July. To the surprise of the City, tax receipts were higher than public spending. Not by much, but a surplus is still a surplus even if in the context of a 1.8tn economy it is small change.

This, though, was a classic case of one swallow not making a summer. For a start, the deficit in the first four months of the financial year - a much better guide to the trend than a single month's figures - was higher this year than last.

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