February 2011

Deficit for 2010-11 still expected to be $7 billion lower than Forecast

 

The December 2010 Fiscal Monitor shows the deficit for the first nine months of 2010-11 was $27.4 billion, $12 billion lower than reported for the same period last year.  The improvement to date is about $2 billion more than that expected in the October 2010 Update for the year as a whole ($10.2 billion).

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A Plea for More Transparency

On February 15, 2011, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance to present his updated fiscal forecast[1] and to raise with the Committee a number of issues in the context of the upcoming 2011 Budget.

Economics Assumptions

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Canada’s Economic Action Plan: Seventh Report What the Report Didn’t Say

On January 31, the Government released its Seventh Report on the Economic Action Plan (EAP).  The report provided an update on the status of the various measures introduced since the January 2009 Budget.  As in the previous reports, it was full of self-congratulations on taking timely and aggressive actions to ensure a quick recovery from the 2008 recession.  It again contained selective quotes supporting the Government’s actions.  On balance, however, the Seventh Report provided little new information.  There were, however, a number of things that the Report did no

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Private Sector Economic Survey for December 2010 Time to Change Budgetary Process

On February 1, 2011, the Department of Finance released its December 2010 survey of private sector economic forecasts.  For the components surveyed, the December results are “broadly” consistent with the September 2010 survey.

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