DAVY VIEW

January’s exchequer returns showed a healthy start to 2019, buoyant tax receipts, up 7% or €351m, still beating Budget targets and indicating economic activity remained strong at the turn of the year. However, public expenditure continues to grow rapidly, gross current expenditure up 7% in January, above the 4% rise pencilled into Budget 2019 for the calendar year. So the exchequer balance saw an improvement of €114m to €1.64bn.