British Finance Minister George Osborne met his target for lowering the country’s budget deficit in the 2014/2015 financial year, avoiding an embarrassment two weeks before a national election.

The Office for National Statistics also said yesterday that retail sales in March unexpectedly fell, hit by the biggest slump in fuel sales in just under three years, potentially adding to concerns about a slowdown in economic growth in early 2015.

On the public finances, public sector net borrowing, which excludes state-controlled banks, totalled £7.4 billion in March, down 5.6 per cent from a year earlier and the lowest for that month since 2004.

Economists taking part in a Reuters poll had forecast a shortfall of £7.1 billion.

The shortfall for the financial year, which runs to March 31, fell to £87.3 billion, comfortably below the latest projection of £90.2 billion set out by Britain’s independent budget forecasters which acts as Osborne’s target.

But Britain’s budget deficit remains large by international standards at 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product.

Osborne originally planned to all but wipe out the deficit by 2015 when his Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government after the last election in 2010 when the deficit was more than 10 per cent of GDP.

He has blamed the miss on the crisis in the eurozone in recent years which hit Britain’s economy.

March’s public finances were boosted by an increase in income tax revenues and national insurance contributions which rose nearly 4.0 per cent.