The Government hopes to reduce the budget deficit to between 10.5 and 10.75 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, Taoiseach Brian Cowen told the Dáil today.
"We hope to get to a deficit of 10.5 -10.75 per cent this year," Mr Cowen said, without specifying whether he was referring to 2010 or the budget being prepared for 2011.
The 2010 budget projected a deficit of 11.6 per cent of GDP and a spokesman for the Department of Finance said it had not changed its forecast.
In 2009 the deficit was above 14 per cent, the highest in the European Union based on the size of the economy.
A spokesman in the Taoiseach’s office also said budget projections had not been revised and added the forecast for 2011 was for a deficit of 10 per cent of GDP. He declined to comment further.
Reuters