The federal government in Ottawa ran a budget deficit of more than $48 billion over the first four months of its current fiscal year.
This year’s budget deficit is currently about $100 billion less than the treasury issued during the same period of last year at the height of the global pandemic.
The Finance Department’s regular fiscal monitor says the budgetary deficit between April and July was $48.5 billion, down from almost $148.6 billion recorded over the same months in 2020.
Program spending, excluding net actuarial losses, between April and July was $154 billion, a decline of about $58.1 billion, or 27.4% drop, from the $212.1 billion in the same period one year earlier.
Year-over-year, wage subsidy payments dropped to $12.5 billion from $30.6 billion and emergency benefits to workers fell to $10.2 billion from $29.9 billion.
The government announced in late July that it was extending emergency benefits until October 23.
Revenues between April and July reached over $118.5 billion, which was a $44.6 billion, or a 60.3% increase from the $73.9 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year, driven primarily by higher tax revenues.
Public debt charges were $7.8 billion, up $1 billion or 14.5%, compared to the $6.8 billion recorded between April and July 2020, which largely reflects higher consumer price index adjustments on real return bonds.