DAVY VIEW

Friday’s ‘White Paper’, published by the Department of Finance, revealed that borrowing of €13bn, or 3% of GDP, is now expected in 2021, due to buoyant corporate taxes and VAT receipts. This is well inside the €20bn of borrowing previously forecast and is low compared with European peers. Political pressures to loosen the purse strings in Tuesday’s (October 12th) Budget for 2022 have been resisted, which will stick with a modest €1.5bn package of spending and tax cuts, with a deficit of circa €8bn, 1.7% of GDP, forecast for 2022.