Government forced to revise deficit estimate after it misallocated €723m

The Government has been forced to revise its estimate for how much the country owes after it misallocated the proceeds from the sale of the mobile phone spectrum.

As a result of error the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has stated that the Government experienced an annual deficit of €13.5bn in 2012, instead of the €12.4bn figure that had been given.

The mistake arose due to the Department of Finance booking the €723m that the State gained from the sale of the mobile phone spectrum as a sale in 2012 which was not acceptable under European statistics body Eurostat’s regulation.