Budget deficit ‘improved’ at €7.3bn

The budget deficit at the end of August was €7.3bn, which is an improvement of €4bn on the same period last year.

The deficit for the month of August was €2.17bn. Tax revenues and expenditure were both broadly in line with forecasts.

This is one of the last exchequer returns before the country exits the EU/IMF bailout programme in November. The agreement with the troika is that the Government will reduce the budget deficit to 3% of GDP by 2015.