Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2017
202. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide, using the most up-to-date economic and fiscal information available, an estimate of the final deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product, GDP, for 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13341/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra204. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide, using the most up-to-date economic and fiscal information available, an estimate of the debt to gross domestic product, GDP, ratio at the end of 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13343/17]
Amharc ar fhreagra216. Deputy Brendan Howlin asked the Minister for Finance if he will provide a revised estimate of Ireland's gross and net debt to gross domestic product, GDP, ratio, in view of the publication by the Central Statistics Office of Quarterly National Accounts Quarter 4 2016 and Year 2016 (Preliminary) on 9 March 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13483/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 202, 204 and 216 together.
As the Deputy will be aware, estimates of gross debt, net debt and the deficit were published by my Department in the documentation accompanying the 2017 Budget last October. Updated figures are being prepared by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), in cooperation with my Department. This will be transmitted to EUROSTAT in the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) notification tables (also known as the Maastricht Returns) at the end of March. Following a clarification process by EUROSTAT this data will be made public just after mid-April. At the same time my Department is also preparing for Stability Programme Update (SPU) 2017. This will take full account of any updated assumptions including figures published by the CSO as part of the government finance statistics release.
However, while updates of the nominal amount have to await the completion of the process described above, the below figures show the impact of the higher 2016 GDP figure in the CSO's recent release on the general government gross and net debt, as well as the general government deficit figure for 2016. However, the Deputy should be aware that the GDP data for 2016 will be subject to revision as part of the CSO's compilation of the National Income and Expenditure data in June this year.
|
(as a % of GDP at current market prices) |
2016 (as at Budget 2017) |
2016 (as at March 2017) |
Percentage Point Change |
|
General Government Gross Debt |
76.0 |
75.1 |
0.9 |
|
General Government Net Debt |
66.0 |
65.4 |
0.7 |
|
General Government Deficit |
0.9 |
0.9 |
0.01 |
