Brown says UK to meet fiscal rules over cycle

LONDON (Reuters) - The government will meet its fiscal rules over the course of the economic cycle, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday, despite higher borrowing.

"I believe the fiscal arithmetic will prove over the cycle to be fine," Brown said on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, when pressed about increases in public borrowing.

In his pre-budget report in October last year, chancellor Alistair Darling said borrowing for the current fiscal year was likely to be 38 billion pounds -- four billion higher than forecast in March.

Financial forecasters say the government will struggle to meet its own revised targets.

The government's fiscal framework revolves around two key rules devised a decade ago by Brown when he was finance minister.

The "golden rule" states the government can borrow only to invest over the economic cycle while the "sustainable investment rule" limits public sector net debt to 40 percent of gross domestic product.

Asked whether government borrowing would exceed 40 billion pounds, Brown said 40 billion was "not an absolute figure at all" and that borrowing was measured over the economic cycle.

"The golden rule is something that is over the economic cycle," Brown said. "We've just finished one economic cycle where we've met the golden rule -- that will be assessed in the budget of course -- we're starting a new economic cycle."

"The question is over the whole years of the economic cycle do you have what is called a current balance."

(Editing by David Cowell)