off-the-wire

Canada budget deficit over first four months of 2024/25 rises to C$7.79 bln

Kitco Media
By Reuters
Published:
Updated:
Reuters
Canada budget deficit over first four months of 2024/25 rises to C$7.79 bln teaser image

OTTAWA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Canada recorded a slightly higher C$7.79 billion ($5.59 billion) budget deficit for the first four months of the 2025/26 fiscal year as government expenditures grew faster than revenues, the finance ministry said on Friday.

By comparison, the deficit in the same period a year earlier had been C$7.30 billion, it said in a statement.

Program expenses rose 3.0% on increases across all major categories of spending. Public debt charges fell marginally by 0.7% largely because of lower interest rates, the ministry said.

Year-to-date revenues grew by 1.6%, largely reflecting higher custom import duties due to retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. and corporate and personal income tax revenue.

Custom import duties increased by 162.4% in the April to July period to C$4.66 billion.

On a monthly basis, Canada posted a deficit of C$1.51 billion in July, compared to a C$4.41 billion deficit in July 2024.

($1 = 1.3933 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee, editing by David Ljunggren)

((Reuters Ottawa bureau; david.ljunggren@tr.com, opens new tab))

Keywords: CANADA BUDGET/

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