REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne//File PhotoDUBLIN, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Ireland on Saturday almost doubled its budget surplus forecast for 2022 to 0.9% of gross domestic product thanks to booming corporate tax revenues, giving it extra resources to help consumers with inflationary pressures.
The forecast was released ahead of the annual budget, which is due to be published next Tuesday, and the figures do not include any measures to be announced that day.
Ireland's general government balance for the year is forecast to be 4.4 billion euros ($4.3 billion), or 0.9% of GDP, up from a July forecast of 0.5%, the finance ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said that without the "windfall" element of its corporate tax receipts - which it estimated at 9 billion euros of a forecast haul of 21.05 billion euros - Ireland might be facing a deficit of 0.9% in 2022.
The ministry forecast that the surplus next year would be 11.8 billion euros, or 2.2% of GDP, if no new budgetary measures were taken thanks to a forecast record corporate tax take of 22.7 billion euros.