Canada will run a deficit for the 2009-2010 fiscal year, after a consecutive budget surplus for more than a decade, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Wednesday.
At a press conference in Saskatoon after meeting with his provincial counterparts to discuss a stimulus package for the battered economy, Flaherty said: "There will be a deficit...It's quite clear on the basis of the forecasts."
Canada has been the only Group of Eight industrialized nation to post a budget surplus, consecutively since 1997.
Flaherty also lowered his economic outlook for 2009, saying the Canadian economy would shrink 0.4 percent.
He had projected the economy to rise 0.3 percent for the year.
Flaherty will table a budget on Jan. 27, which would include a much expected stimulus package. About 6 billion Canadian dollars (4.8 billion U.S. dollars) spending on infrastructure will be included, he said.
Source:Xinhua
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