London, Sep 22 (IANS): Net borrowing by the British public sector reached 14.41 billion pounds ($23.4 billion) in August, compared with 14.36 billion pounds in the same month last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

The figure, excluding financial sector interventions such as the government's preferred measure, was the highest for any August since records began in January 1993, reported Xinhua.

"The public sector current budget deficit amounted to 13.2 billion pounds last month, higher than the 12.8 billion pounds in August of last year," said the ONS Friday.

ONS data showed that public sector net debt was 1.03 trillion pounds at the end of August, equivalent to 66.1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). However, widened budget deficits have raised concern that the government could miss its deficit target for the year.

Britain's independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has set the government's borrowing target for the 2012-13 financial year, which began in April, at 120 billion pounds. Economists said that target now looked unattainable.

British public sector consists of four sub-sectors, namely central government, local government, non-financial public corporations and financial public corporations.