{"id":556477,"date":"2026-04-29T07:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556477\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T07:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T07:20:09","slug":"canadas-deficit-lower-than-expected-thanks-to-higher-oil-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/556477\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada&#8217;s deficit lower than expected thanks to higher oil prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We were determined to get spending down with a lot of very\u2026 difficult decisions,&#8221; he said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The savings are being used to justify billions of dollars in new spending to train thousands of skilled workers and set up Canada&#8217;s first-ever sovereign wealth fund.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Canada Strong Fund, a first for the country, will invest in energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology, with an initial contribution of C$25bn. The fund will also allow Canadians who have &#8220;a bit of extra money&#8221; to invest into it directly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Tuesday&#8217; fiscal update, while positive,  also warns that despite the savings, Canada is not immune to financial setbacks in the long-term from US tariffs and the US-Israel war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The economy is expected to continue growing, but the outlook is subject to heightened global uncertainty, including ongoing trade tensions and geopolitical risks,&#8221; the document stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Canada has the world&#8217;s third-largest oil reserves, with oil and gas being its primary exports, so higher global oil prices have contributed positively to its economic performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The fiscal update includes a temporary tax break on fuel that the Carney government announced earlier this month to help consumers with rising costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It also includes funding for a previously announced one-time grocery rebate for lower-income Canadians. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The spring budget projects Canada will remain in a deficit over the next five years, hovering around C$50bn by 2031. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The financial shape of the country has long been a point of criticism for the Conservatives, the official opposition in parliament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ahead of Tuesday, its leader, Pierre Poilievre, had called on Carney to slash spending significantly and balance the federal budget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Poilievre has argued that Canada&#8217;s debt is the reason behind its affordability crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He&#8217;s putting the nation&#8217;s spending on the credit card, and he&#8217;s forcing families to put their personal spending  on their personal credit cards to pay for his high cost of living,&#8221; the Conservative leader said on Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;We were determined to get spending down with a lot of very\u2026 difficult decisions,&#8221; he said on Monday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-556477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}