Canada’s federal government in Ottawa has posted a $19.10 billion budget deficit for the first eight months of its current 2023-24 fiscal year.
The latest budget deficit covers the April-to-November period of the government’s fiscal year, which runs from April 1 to March 31.
The budget deficit of $19.10 billion is 430% greater than the deficit of $3.60 billion that Ottawa reported for the same period in its previous 2022-23 fiscal year.
The federal Department of Finance said that government revenues for the eight-month period totalled $281.80 billion, up 2.6% from $274.70 billion a year earlier.
However, expenses, excluding net actuarial losses, amounted to $264.90 billion, up 6.3% from $249.20 billion a year ago.
The finance department said that higher interest rates pushed public debt charges up by 37.7% to $31 billion from $22.50 billion in the previous year.
Net actuarial losses for Canada’s federal government totalled $5 billion compared with nearly $6.60 billion a year earlier.
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