Britain\\\'s state borrowing rises

British state borrowing worsened in February, official data showed Friday, but the government remains on track to meet the new deficit target unveiled earlier this week. Public sector net borrowing, the government's preferred measure of the deficit, rose to £9.3 billion ($15.3 billion) in February. That compared with £6.5 billion in the same month of 2013, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement. Market expectations had been for borrowing of about £8.8 billion. Last year's February borrowing was skewed by a one-off windfall from 4G mobile licences as well as interest earned from the Bank of England's quantitative easing programme of asset purchases, according to AFP.