Spending boom swells State coffers by €2.5bn

THE European Central Bank may have announced a 0.25% increase in interest rates yesterday but nothing can dent this country’s property and spending boom.

The latest Exchequer figures released yesterday show a whopping surplus of almost €2.5 billion for the first two months of 2006.

The healthy state of the Government finances is built on the back of across-the-board increases in tax revenues, showing an increase of €1.2bn compared to January and February last year.