Budget deficit third biggest in EU at €13.5bn

Ireland’s budget deficit for 2012 has been revised upwards from €12.5bn to just over €13.5bn making it the third largest in the EU.

The new figure means that the deficit represented 8.2% of GDP rather than the 7.6% estimated back in April. According to the CSO, the revision arose mainly from Government revenue from mobile phone licence sales being initially recorded for 2012, rather than for 2013.

While the 8.2% figure is higher than first anticipated, it is still a vast improvement on the 2011 deficit of €21.36bn; which amounted to 13.1% of GDP. Furthermore, it was still better than the 8.6% of GDP target set by the troika for 2012.