(Ottawa) The federal government has accumulated a budget deficit of 23.6 billion for the first nine months of its 2023-24 fiscal year.
This result compares to a deficit of 5.5 billion which had accumulated during the same period in the 2022-23 financial year.
Federal government revenues totaled $318.1 billion for the April-December period, up from $310.0 billion for the same period last year.
Ottawa attributes this increase to the increase in personal income tax revenues, other non-tax revenues and other taxes and duties. A drop in corporate income tax revenues, however, partially slowed this increase.
According to the government, program spending, excluding net actuarial losses, amounted to $301.0 billion, an increase of $18.6 billion compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year. There was an increase in all major spending categories.
The rise in interest rates caused public debt charges to rise from 25.8 billion to 35.1 billion from one year to the next for the same period.
Net actuarial losses totaled 5.7 billion, down from 7.4 billion a year earlier.