DUBLIN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Ireland recorded a budget surplus of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in 2023, down from a surplus of 5 billion euros in the previous year, the finance ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry said the fall was due to a number of factors including increased public expenditure and the transfer of 4 billion euros to the country's National Reserve Fund.
The ministry did not immediately provide an estimate for headline government surplus as a percentage of modified gross national income (GNI*), a bespoke measure that strips out some of the ways multinational activity can inflate performance.
In October it said it expected a GNI* surplus of 3.0%, down marginally from 3.1% last year.
Corporate tax revenues, driven by Ireland's large multinational sector, were a record 23.8 billion euros for the year, up 5.3% on 2022. The ministry said there had been a "significant moderation in growth in this revenue stream compared to recent years".
Total tax receipts for the year were up 6% compared to the previous year, while total gross voted expenditure was 6.7% higher, the ministry said.
($1 = 0.9136 euros) (Writing by Conor Humphries Editing by Mark Potter)
