CHANCELLOR George Osborne has missed his borrowing targets knocking efforts to shore up the UK’s finances, official figures have revealed.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says the budget deficit stood at £74bn for the financial year ending in March.

However, The Office for Budget Responsibility had forecast borrowing to hit £72.2bn for 2015/16, meaning the Chancellor overshot by £1.8bn.

The ONS said borrowing hit a better-than-expected £4.6bn in March, while the Government saved £1.3bn on the cost of day-to-day activities of the public sector.

But it added public sector net debt, excluding public sector banks, increased by £47.5bn year-on-year to £1,594.1bn, the equivalent to 83.5 per cent of gross domestic product.

Mr Osborne previously pledged to return the UK to a surplus by 2020, but is now expected to see the deficit shrink more slowly than previously thought, with the Office for Budget Responsibility expecting it to reach £55.5bn in 2016/17, £38.8bn in 2017/18 and £21.4bn in 2018/19.

A Treasury spokesman said: “We are borrowing £18bn less than last year and March’s monthly borrowing was the lowest for a decade.

“However, while the deficit is falling, the job of repairing the public finances is not done.

“The Budget set out action to ensure debt falls in 2016 and 2017 and that Britain is back in the black by the end of this Parliament.”