DUBLIN, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Ireland continued to collect more
tax than it had expected early in the coronavirus pandemic in
September, beating forecasts for the fifth straight month to
keep the year-on-year decline in the overall tax take to 3% so
far this year.
Ireland's finance ministry forecast in April that state
revenues would fall 16% this year due to pandemic disruption.
But a strong pre-crisis start to the year, better than expected
income tax take since and a surge in corporate tax receipts
meant revenues were little changed in the first six months.
An unprecedented level of stimulus to soften the economic
hit pushed government spending up 24.9% year-on-year in the
first nine months and the exchequer deficit to 9.4 billion
euros, the data from the ministry showed on Friday.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin;
Editing by Alison Williams)