Irish tax take ahead of target in first nine months

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's tax take was 1.7% ahead of target in the year to the end of September, buoyed by strong income, corporation and value-added tax, the finance department said on Wednesday.

The country's tax take has been improving in recent months after a slow start to the year relative to its monthly targets. The strong performance meant Ireland collected 8.7% more in tax revenues that at the same period last year.

Expenditure was 1 percent behind where the government had forecast, creating an exchequer surplus of 38 million euros, compared to a deficit of 1.47 billion euros a year ago. The government expects to run a budget of 0.2% of economic output this year.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)