Freeland wont say if deficit set to rise but will meet debt-to-GDP anchor – National [Video]

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Tuesday would not say whether the Liberals kept a pledge to cap the budget deficit at $40.1 billion in the previous fiscal year, but said the upcoming fall economic statement will show Ottawa’s balance sheet remains on a “sustainable” track.

When Freeland tabled the 2024 federal budget in the House of Commons in April, she highlighted “three very specific fiscal guideposts” that were underpinning “a responsible economic plan.”

Those guideposts were capping the federal deficit at $40.1 billion and maintaining both a declining debt-to-GDP ratio and a deficit-to-GDP ratio.

“In this budget, each one of these objectives is being met, as is our fiscal anchor — a declining federal debt-to-GDP ratio over the medium term,” she said while tabling the budget.

Freeland told Global National’sDawna Friesen after tabling the budget in April that credit rating agencies would be looking at those three guideposts to gauge whether Ottawa …