State needs to borrow less this year

THE Central Bank has forecast that the Government may end up borrowing €1.3 billion less than expected this year.

In its summer bulletin, which will be published later today, the health of the public finances indicates that borrowing will be much lower this year than had been predicted by finance minister Charlie McCreevy. He had predicted that the country would need to borrow around €2.7 billion this year.

The bank said that if the tax revenues maintain their current rates then the deficit for this year will be just 0.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) instead of the projected 1.1%.