Financial Perspective – Ten take-aways from the 2024-2025 federal budget
An overview of the latest Freeland budget.
With all the announcements the federal government made prior to the official presentation of its 2024-2025 budget, it was fair to wonder what was left to be revealed in the budget itself, which was tabled on April 16 by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Still, a number of items were attention-worthy, including the big question that was still up in the air at that point: how big would the deficit be?
The answer is now clear, for the fiscal year 2023-2024, the deficit will be $40 billion; a year from now it should be $39.8 billion and in five years, $20 billion. These figures should result in a debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio – a key indicator for the government – that will go from 42.1% in 2023-2024 to 41.9% next year and 39.0% by 2028-2029.