Chart of the day: Deficit at £126bn in 2011/12

The ONS has released the public borrowing figures for this quarter, showing the deficit over the last year was £126bn – exactly that predicted by the OBR in March. If their predictions have started being accurate (not a guarantee), we should see the deficit down to £21bn by 2016/17. This is a long way off where we thought we would be by now in June 2010, and means that the next election will be fought with further reductions still to come.