Ireland sees budget deficit falling to 1.1 percent this year

DUBLIN, April 20 (Reuters) - Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's underlying budget deficit was a lower-than expected 1.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 but will be higher than anticipated earlier this year at 1.1 percent, finance minister Michael Noonan said on Wednesday.

In January, Noonan said he expected the deficit to come in at 1.5 percent of GDP in 2015 and 0.75 percent in 2016. Under the European Union rules, Ireland had to cut its deficit below 3 percent by the end of 2015.

Ireland's finance ministry said the headline deficit for 2015 was 2.3 percent due to the EU's statistics agency treatment of the repayment of 1.7 billion euros of government bailout funds by Allied Irish Banks (Berlin: 30544177.BE - news) , but that this was a once-off payment that would not impact the 2016 number. (Reporting by Conor Humphries and Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Chopra)