Deficit drops again. 37% in August.

[Azure]

Great news especially with the economy slowing down. Which I don't believe it will despite the forecast. They also said job creation was slowing down and September was a record month.

Canada’s federal budget deficit narrowed by 37.4 percent in August as the job market drove up employment insurance premiums and reduced benefit payments, and corporate tax revenue rose, the finance department said.
The federal government deficit narrowed to C$3.64 billion ($3.66 billion) in August, down from C$5.81 billion a year earlier, the department said in its monthly budget report. The deficit in the first five months of the fiscal year that began April 1 narrowed to C$10.7 billion from C$13.5 billion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1...ment-drop.html

In August, corporate tax revenue jumped 35.4 percent to C$1.59 billion and increased 6.7 percent in the first five months of the fiscal year to C$10.4 billion.

[CaptainCrunch]

[Hemi-Cuda]

so what's the different between deficit and debt? the Canadian national debt is over half a trillion dollars, so this news doesn't seem like that big of a deal

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

so what's the different between deficit and debt? the Canadian national debt is over half a trillion dollars, so this news doesn't seem like that big of a deal

Debt is the total amount we already owe people. Deficit is how much we are short budget-wise per year. So how much we already owe people and how much we are increasing that on a yearly basis.

[Slava]

Is this on pace, ahead of expectations or behind? (no chance to read the article....)

[opendoor]

That sounds about right. The federal deficit is expected to shrink from about $55 billion last year to $32 billion this year. Initially the government was hoping to be generating surpluses by 2015, but it doesn't sound like that timeline is very likely at this point.

If you adjust for inflation, we're back at about 1990 levels in terms of public debt and still a ways off the mid '90s peak, so we're looking OK on that front. Still, by the time they get the budget back into the black we'll have seen a 25% increase in public debt since 2008. That's a lot better than the Trudeau and Mulroney years, but it's more than I'd like to see over such a short time period.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Slava

Is this on pace, ahead of expectations or behind? (no chance to read the article....)

Looks to be a bit better than what they projected. Long road ahead but bit by bit we need to get better every year.

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[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by opendoor

That sounds about right. The federal deficit is expected to shrink from about $55 billion last year to $32 billion this year. Initially the government was hoping to be generating surpluses by 2015, but it doesn't sound like that timeline is very likely at this point.

If you adjust for inflation, we're back at about 1990 levels in terms of public debt and still a ways off the mid '90s peak, so we're looking OK on that front. Still, by the time they get the budget back into the black we'll have seen a 25% increase in public debt since 2008. That's a lot better than the Trudeau and Mulroney years, but it's more than I'd like to see over such a short time period.

Deficits rising in periods of economic stress, when tax revenues fall and governments typically spend to inflate, is not unusual.

Where governments often fail is with an inability to curb spending and bring deficits down in periods of economic expansion.

That's always where the real test is.

The Liberals with Jean Chretian and Paul Martin did a great job through the 90's in this regard.

Cowperson

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Azure

Looks to be a bit better than what they projected. Long road ahead but bit by bit we need to get better every year.

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I had a chance to read the article now. Its good I guess, but the thread title leads one to believe its a lot more impressive than it actually is. In that vein the article also notes that Flaherty is going to cut the outlook for growth but didn't say how that would affect plans to balance the books by 2014.

I don't mean this to suggest that the government is doing anything wrong or not doing something they ought to. I just think that the 37% statistic implies a better picture than the full picture.

[Azure]

True, but quite frankly given the recession and the past 3 years or so in the US(poor economy) I would call it nothing short of amazing that we can actually manage to cut our deficit.

Now imagine how much money we would save if the Conservatives didn't pass that stupid crime bill.