Britain's budget deficit widened to the biggest on record for any August, data showed today.
This comes a day after the Bank of England governor said overshooting budget targets may now be acceptable.
The UK government said a weak economy pushed down corporation tax receipts and drove up benefit payments.
Public sector net borrowing excluding financial sector interventions - the government's preferred measure - rose last month to £14.410 billion sterling from £14.365 billion in August 2011.
That was the highest for any August since records began in January 1993, although slightly below economists' forecast £15 billion.
Finance minister George Osborne, who has made reducing the deficit a central plank of his policies, may soon face a tough choice between imposing more spending cuts or abandoning his goal of ensuring that the debt-to-GDP ratio starts falling by 2015.
In March, the UK's state forecasting body - the Office for Budget Responsibility - predicted public sector net borrowing would amount to 5.8% of GDP in the 2012/13 fiscal year. Economists said that target now looked unattainable.
By way of contrast, countries in the euro zone - deemed to be in a debt crisis that Britain has largely escaped if its record low borrowing costs are any guide - are striving to shrink their budget deficits to 3% of GDP over the next year.
In his annual Autumn Statement in December 5, Osborne is likely to face a downgrade in the OBR's growth forecast, as well as a gloomier prediction for the budget deficit. He is already under pressure to loosen his austerity drive as Britain's economy is struggling to move out of recession and a meaningful recovery looks elusive.
Bank of England policymaker Spencer Dale said earlier today the economic backdrop was still "pretty challenging", but that there were encouraging signs from local businesses that access to bank finance was becoming easier due to the Bank of England's new Funding for Lending Scheme.
Borrowing in the fiscal year to date actually fell to £31.003 billion from £48.446 billion in the April-August period 2011. However, stripping out the transfer of Royal Mail pension assets, the deficit stood at £59 billion, up 21.8% compared with April-August 2011 - far above the OBR's forecast for the full year of an increase by just 0.5%.
The UK government had originally planned to eliminate the structural budget deficit by 2015 with a tough programme of spending cuts and tax rises. But a weak economy has forced it to extend austerity by another two years and Prime Minister David Cameron has warned austerity could last even longer - until 2020.
Today's data showed that government receipts rose 1.8% on the year in August, while current spending grew 2.5%. Within that, corporation tax inflows fell 2.1% on the year, while social benefit payments rose 4.9%.
