EU pressure to cut budgets ‘should be less’

EU pressure to continue cutting Government budgets when the bailout programme ends should be slightly less than expected, officials confirmed in Brussels.

Ireland and other eurozone countries legally signed up last year to the fiscal compact that includes running a balanced government budget with a structural deficit of no more than 0.5% of GDP.

Experts are planning to change the formulas they use to calculate a country’s structural deficit — which is supposed to represent the real overspend by government once cyclical elements, such as high growth, are taken into account.