财政部长比尔·莫奈(Bill Morneau)今天发布了财政概况,显示联邦政府今年的赤字预计将达到3,430亿美元,这一令人触目的数字主要归因于与新冠疫情大流行有关的支持计划,这些计划已将联邦支出推至第二次世界大战以来的最高水平。
这份168页的快照提供了短期经济分析,并详细介绍了政府为支持经济而增加的生命支持支出。它没有使经济恢复大流行前的正常状态的长期计划。
莫尔瑙在今天的下议院演讲中说:“有些人会批评我们采取行动的代价。” “但我们的政府知道,不采取行动的代价会更大。
“那些本来希望我们做得更少的人忽略了如果不采取政府行动,将失去数百万个工作岗位,将债务负担推给家庭,并危及加拿大的复原力。”
政府最近几个月推出了大笔款项,例如加拿大紧急救济金(CERB)(在大流行期间帮助患病者和失业者)和加拿大紧急工资补贴(CEWS),以帮助企业将员工保持在工资中销售和收入发生了巨大变化。
政府还建立了加拿大紧急企业帐户(CEBA),以向需要帮助的企业发放部分可宽恕的贷款,并在今年夏天拨出了约90亿加元来帮助学生。
我们从此财政概况中学到了什么:
2020-21年的赤字从大流行之前的344亿美元增加到3,432亿美元。
联邦政府净债务将达到1.2万亿美元。
联邦债务占GDP的比例预计将从31%上升到2020-21年的49%
联邦对加拿大人和企业的直接支持:2,120亿加元。
COVID-19的减速使联邦财政损失了813亿美元。
今年的GDP预计将萎缩6.8%,是大萧条以来最严重的一次。
预计明年经济将反弹5.5%。
老年人获得了一次性的老年安全奖金,有资格获得加拿大儿童福利金的家庭在5月又获得了20亿加元的支出。政府估计,这些计划以及其他数十个计划迄今已导致2360亿美元的新支出。
但政府预计,到明年3月的2020-21财年末,它的支出将比上一次在2019年12月设定支出目标时的计划多出约4,690亿美元。
链接如下:
Ottawa to post $343B deficit as spending hits levels not seen since Second World War
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Federal debtload will hit $1.2 trillion in 2020-21, the government projects in its fiscal ‘snapshot’
Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled a fiscal snapshot today that shows the federal government's deficit is expected to hit $343 billion this year — an eye-popping figure largely attributed to pandemic-related support programs that have pushed federal spending to a level not seen since the Second World War.
The 168-page snapshot offers a short-term economic analysis and a detailed account of what the government has spent already to shore up an economy on life support. It presents little in the way of a long-term plan to return the economy to pre-pandemic normalcy.
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Highlights of Bill Morneau's 2020 fiscal 'snapshot'
"Some will criticize us on the cost of action," Morneau said in a speech in the House of Commons today. "But our government knew that the cost of inaction would've been far greater.
"Those who would have us do less ignore that, without government action, millions of jobs would have been lost, putting the burden of debt onto families and jeopardizing Canada's resilience."
The government has rolled out big-ticket items in recent months like the Canada emergency relief benefit (CERB) — to help the sick and unemployed during the pandemic — and the Canada emergency wage subsidy (CEWS) to help businesses keep employees on the payroll amid massive shifts in sales and revenue.
The government also has created the Canada emergency business account (CEBA) to float partly forgivable loans to businesses in need, and has set aside some $9 billion to help students this summer.
What we've learned from this fiscal snapshot:
Deficit for 2020-21 rises to $343.2 billion from $34.4 billion projected before pandemic.
Net federal debt will hit $1.2 trillion.
Federal debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to rise to 49% in 2020-21 from 31%
Direct federal support for Canadians and businesses: $212 billion.
COVID-19 slowdown has cost the federal treasury an additional $81.3 billion.
GDP will shrink by projected 6.8% this year — worst since the Great Depression.
Economy is expected to bounce back by 5.5% next year.
Seniors have received one-time Old Age Security bonuses and families eligible for the Canada Child Benefit got an extra $2 billion in payouts in May.
The government estimates that these programs, and dozens of others, have resulted in $236 billion in new spending to date.
But the government is projecting that, by the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year next March, it will have spent about $469 billion more than planned when it last set spending targets in December 2019.
Wage subsidy to be extended
These numbers are significantly higher than what Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux projected in June.
Senior finance officials, speaking on background to reporters at a technical briefing, said that is largely attributable to higher projections for uptake of the wage subsidy and the CERB.
One official said the government will soon announce details of a proposed extension to the wage subsidy beyond its current August 2020 end date.
"We know there's some things that need to change so we can get people back to work," Morneau said of the program. "We'll have more to say in the very near term."
As of June 15, the government had approved $13.28 billion in payroll help for 223,918 companies.
But in the fiscal snapshot, the government is projecting the subsidy program will cost $82.3 billion in 2020-21 — a sign that the government expects many more businesses to avail themselves to the 75 per cent wage support after some tweaks to the existing program.
Beyond new spending, the deficit has been pushed higher by a significant dip in the amount of revenue that Canada is expected to collect this year.
Personal income taxes alone are projected to dip by some 30 per cent and corporate taxes will be roughly 11 per cent lower.
Debt tops $1 trillion
"The projected contraction in federal budgetary revenues is unprecedented since the Great Depression, with an expected decline in 2020-21 more than twice as big as in 2009-10, following the global financial crisis," the fiscal update says.
All told, the mounting deficit has pushed the federal government's total debt level to more than $1 trillion — a number never before seen in Canada.
The projected debt will be $1.2 trillion by March 2021, up from $765 billion a year earlier.
"The reality is we've witnessed an unprecedented shock to our system," Morneau told reporters.
"With a crisis of this magnitude, someone was going to have to shoulder the costs and the federal government was uniquely placed to take this responsibility on. We took on this role because it was the right thing to do."
The debt-to-GDP ratio, the government's favoured fiscal marker, also has jumped to 49.1 per cent from the 30.1 per cent projected last December. That ratio shows how the debt compares to the size of the country's economy.
That nearly 20-point swing is attributed to a diminished economy — restaurants, hotels, oil rig drilling and home and motor vehicle sales experienced particularly massive declines in business activity in the last fiscal quarter.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called Morneau's fiscal update a "dire picture of Canada's finances."
He said the document shows the government has no plan to stimulate growth, attract business investment or create the conditions for job growth.
"The prime minister's track record proves that he cannot be trusted to lead Canada through the recovery," he said.
Scheer said Canada is the only G7 country that has had its credit rating cut during the pandemic — one of the U.S.'s big 3 credit agencies downgraded the rating last month — and Canada has the highest unemployment rate among the group of developed nations.
"That should be a real wake-up call for this government," he said, adding that even Greece has more people employed now than Canada.
He said issuing a fiscal snapshot without much of a plan to support the economy as it reopens is a "wasted opportunity."
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