Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy has admitted that an Exchequer deficit is in prospect for this year. At budget time, he had forecast a surplus of €170m.
Exchequer returns released this afternoon show a surplus of €594m for the first nine months of this year, compared with a €2.93 billion surplus at the same stage last year.
Total tax receipts were up 2.6% to just under €21 billion, compared with a full year target for an increase of 8.6%. Income tax receipts were 10.7% lower than the same period last year at €5.8 billion. The budget target was for an increase of 1.1% in income tax receipts.
Current spending is running 20% ahead of last year, well ahead of the 2002 target of 14.3%. This is a deterioration from last month's figures, when spending was running 18.9% ahead.
A statement from the Department of Finance said an Exchequer borrowing requirement of €750m was now expected for 2002.
Department officials told reporters that budget day targets for spending growth of 14.3% were on track to be met by the end of this year.
Department of Finance officials also revealed that SSIA accounts would cost the Exchequer around €425m this year, and €500m in the following full calendar year.
They also said that early indications suggested that the Government will report a general government deficit of between 0.5% and 0.75% of GDP to the European Commission this year. The EU growth and stability pact requires that governments keep deficits within 3% of GDP.
Officials also said that negotiations with public service unions were unlikely to be completed in time for the first payment in any benchmarking deal to be made this year.
