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))
Keywords: CANADA BUDGET/
