OTTAWA -- Finance Minister Marc Lalonde says the federal deficit may be a few billion dollars shy of the $27 billion he forecast for the 1982-1983 fiscal year.
'In October, I forecast about $23.5 billion,' he said.
'In February, I forecast about $27 billion. It may be in between.'
The finance department reported the deficit for the first 11 months of the last fiscal year $20.49 billion. The fiscal year ended March 31, but March figures have not yet been tallied into the total.
The monthly deficit for February was $2.3 billion, compared with $1.4 billion for February 1982.
The year-to-year figures revealed most strikingly the severity of the recesssion. After the first 11 months of the 1981-1982 fiscal year, the federal deficit was $10.2 billion.
Lalonde has already predicted the deficit for the 1983-1984 fiscal year which began April 1 could surpass $29 billion.
Increasing unemployment insurance and other social security payments coupled with diminishing tax revenues, especially commercial taxes, pumped up the deficit, the department said.
Lalonde rejected suggestions he had deliberately inflated the deficit last February to soften the blow of a bigger deficit in next week's budget.
'I wish I were that clever,' he said. 'But the situation varies tremendously from month to month' because of government revenues which fluctuate in part because of when companies pay their taxes and when the government issues refunds.
In its monthly statement of operations, the department said revenues for February were $3.7 billion while expenditures were $6.1 billion. In February 1982 revenues were $3.5 billion while expenditures were $5 billion.
In the first eleven months of 1981-82, the government earned $47.6 billion in revenue and spent $57.8 billion. But in the first 11 months of 1982-83, it took in less money -- $47.3 billion -- and spent $67.8 billion.
