article_snippet.sent: Britain will still be running a budget deficit at the end of the decade despite plans to return Britain to the black, the International Monetary Fund warned last night.
article_snippet.sent: global watchdog said Britain will continue to spend more on public services and other areas such as welfare and overseas aid than it raises in tax throughout the next parliament.
article_snippet.sent: The projection underlines just how hard it will be for the next government to eliminate Britain annual deficit, which hit a record £153billion under Labour in 2009-10 and now stands at £90billion.
article_snippet.sent: The International Monetary Fund (managing director, Christine Lagarde, pictured) warned Britain will still be running a budget deficit at the end of the decadethe decade, despite plans to return Britain to the black .
article_snippet.sent: David Cameron and George Osborne then plan to run a surplus of £7billion in 2019-20.
article_snippet.sent: But the International Monetary Fund predicted that there will still be a deficit of £7billion that year – even after a decade of austerity.
article_snippet.sent: The warning, in the Fund’s Fiscal Monitor report into government finances around the world, will alarm the Tories in particular as the Tories attempt to persuade voters that only the Tories can balance the books.
article_snippet.sent: But the International Monetary Fund also raises the prospect of even higher borrowing under a Labour government.
article_snippet.sent: the Fund’s Fiscal Monitor report into government finances around the world warned that ‘uncertainties pertaining to the May elections’ mean spending may not be cut as fast as planned.
article_snippet.sent: Ed Miliband is already planning a slower pace of deficit reduction than the Tories with experts warning Ed Miliband could be borrowing around £30billion a year by the end of the decade.
article_snippet.sent: But that figure is likely to be even higher if the IMF is proved right and tax receipts do not live up to current expectations.
article_snippet.sent: The bleak projections for the UK public finances come despite the IMF hailing ‘solid’ economic growth in UK.
article_snippet.sent: It is now expecting growth of 2.7 per cent this year and 2.3 per cent next year – making Britain the second fastest growing economy in Group of Seven industrialised nations behind the United States.
highlights_snippet.sent: Projection underlines next government's task to eliminate annual deficit .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: It hit a record £153billion under Labour in 2009/10 and is now £90billion .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: But global watchdog predicts there will still be deficit of £7billion that year .