The federal government posted a surplus of $3.9 billion in April and May and is on track to balance the budget for the 2015 fiscal year as a whole, the Department of Finance said Wednesday.
Ottawa's fiscal year starts in April and for the first two months of the year the government posted a surplus, the department said. For comparison purposes, in the same period last year the government posted a $1.1-billion deficit.
During April and May revenues increased by $5.5 billion, or 12.8%, largely reflecting increases in income taxes, excise taxes and duties, the government said.
That revenue figure also includes proceeds of the sale of the government's remaining stake in GM, which went through in April when Ottawa sold more than 73 million shares in the company. The government has not released a figure of how much they sold the shares for, but based on GM's stock price on public markets at the time, that would have raised more than $3.4 billion for government coffers.
The revenue bump offset expenses, which were up $0.6 billion, or 1.5% compared to last year.
The government's official numbers come on the same day as a separate report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer predicting that due to the economic slowdown, the government will post a deficit of $1.5 billion this year.
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