The 2013 budget deficit was €11.5bn — an improvement of €3.4bn on 2012 — though the gap between revenue and expenditure was higher than projected.

The Government and Bank of Ireland will wait until the Central Bank’s balance sheet assessment of domestic banks is completed before making a decision about the redemption of the €1.8bn in preference shares, say analysts.

Bank of Ireland could go to the market as early as today with a seven-year covered bond.

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

The latest Central Bank figures show that domestic banks and households continue to deleverage, with mortgage and business lending falling and deposits increasing.

The 0.6% contraction in GDP over the first quarter of 2013, following on from the revised 0.2% shrinkage in the final quarter of last year, puts Ireland officially back in recession.

The manufacturing sector grew in April compared with the previous month with most of the increase coming from the “modern” hi-tech sectors.

There was an 11% increase in the seasonally adjusted trade surplus for March to €3.489bn, although the headline figure masks underlying trends that could cause future problems.

The latest GDP and balance of payments figures show that the domestic economy is showing signs of stabilising while the export sector continues to grow.

The Government’s tax take at the end of February was down €77m on the year, mainly because of one-off factors.

Lending by banks to households continues to fall while deposits increase as the sector continues to deleverage.

Ireland’s prospects of meeting the EU/IMF bailout targets in 2013 and making a full return to the markets received a boost with the latest growth figures from the Central Statistics Office.

Irish banks are continuing to deleverage by shrinking their loan books and increasing their deposit books, according to the latest set of banking statistics from the Central Bank.

Ireland’s seasonally adjusted trade surplus jumped by 27%, or €1bn, in August to nearly €5bn, on the back of a record monthly export performance.

There were 435,200 people signing on in September on a seasonally adjusted basis, which was down 400 from the previous month though the overall rate of 14.8% remained unchanged from August.

Irish private sector deposits turned positive in August for the first time since Jun 2010, according to figures released by the Central Bank yesterday.

GDP over the second quarter of this year fell by 1.1% compared with the same period in 2011, although GDP was flat compared with the first quarter of this year.

Exports continued to surge in July, reaching €7.9bn, which was a 6% increase on the previous month.

Lending to households and businesses continued to decline over July, although there are signs that the deposit books at the Irish banks have stabilised, according to the latest data from the Irish Central Bank.

The National Treasury Management Agency will auction a €500m three-month treasury bill tomorrow to pave the way for the issuance of longer dated debt in the first quarter of 2013.