Visualising the deficit ahead of the budget

The amount the government is in debt each month has just been announced. See how it\'s changed
• Get the data

Britain\'s budget deficit is in the news. Yesterday, the Office for National Statistics announced that lower than expected unemployment and the return of VAT to 17.5% helped to restrict the level of borrowing last month , even though the deficit was still the highest for any February since modern records began. Government receipts were 3.6% higher last month than in February 2009, the fastest rate of growth since April 2008, when the economy was just slipping into recession.

The deficit is the government\'s running overdraft - the gap between what it has coming in and what goes out. It\'s a very cyclical thing - in months like January when tax payments come in, the government expects to be in credit. During the summer, it\'s often in debt. To cover the deficit, the government has to borrow money, which is added on to the national debt - you can see the full data for that here .

What\'s clear is that this financial year, the balance between incomings and outgoings every month is worse than in the previous financial year.

We wanted to show how much the government is in credit or debit each month - and how this financial year compares to the last. This is how we did it - click on the image above for the big picture.

The full data from the ONS is below - what can you do with it?