The figure - the difference between spending and tax income - was £30.5bn more than it borrowed in August last year. The increase meant that the borrowing figure hit its highest amount for August since records began in 1993. Borrowing between April and August totalled £173.7bn - also a record. August's monthly borrowing figure was, however, less than economists had predicted at £38bn, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also revised down its estimate for UK borrowing in July, by more than £11bn, to £15.4bn, demonstrating how difficult tracking the economy during the pandemic can be. It also said that total UK debt passed £2 trillion for the first time in history in August, rather than in July as previously thought. In August, debt hit £2.024tn, £249.5bn more than the same time in 2019. That figure now exceeds the size of the UK economy, the highest level of debt seen since the 1960s.