Federal government posts $19.1B deficit for April to November period

OTTAWA – The federal government posted a deficit of $19.1 billion for the first eight months of its 2023-24 fiscal year.

The result for the April-to-November period compared with a deficit of nearly $3.6 billion reported for the same stretch of its 2022-23 fiscal year.

Government revenues for the eight-month period totalled $281.8 billion, up 2.6 per cent from $274.7 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Program expenses, excluding net actuarial losses, for the April-to-November period totalled nearly $264.9 billion, up 6.3 per cent from nearly $249.2 billion.

Higher interest rates pushed public debt charges up 37.7 per cent to 31.0 billion from $22.5 billion a year earlier.

Net actuarial losses totalled $5.0 billion compared with nearly $6.6 billion in the same period last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2024.