DUBLIN (Reuters), Ireland’s budget deficit was cut to 3.1% for 2017 from a projection it had made in March of 5.1%. The reduction is due to less-than-expected spending, strong tax receipts, and increased economic growth.

In recent weeks, the government indicated that they expected to reduce their deficit forecast. This was after the state had collected 5.8% more taxes than anticipated during the first nine month of the year and spent 3.2% less than predicted.

The deficit will be around 5.9% of modified gross national income (GNI*), which the government sees as a better reflection of the real economy as it strips out distortions caused by the country’s large multinational sector, a government pre-budget paper published on Saturday said.

That was down from an earlier forecast of 9.4% of GNI*.

On Tuesday, the government will publish its annual budget.