Borrowing requirements stay same

THE Department of Finance has no plans to revise its borrowing requirements for this year after new figures showed the Government borrowed close to €900 million less than it expected in 2003.

Department officials said there was no certainty that the Exchequer would see the kind of bounce in the public finances it did towards the end of last year when the deficit was €889m short of what had been forecast in Budget 2003.

The deficit was just 0.1% of gross domestic product (GDP).