10:54 AM EST, 12/10/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Canada will meet the 2023-2024 debt-to-GDP target it set in the federal budget in April, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday, but declined to say whether the budget deficit would be bigger than planned, Reuters is reporting.

It noted Freeland is due to present a fall economic statement next Monday with updated deficit figures. She had promised to keep the 2023-24 shortfall at or below $40.1-billion, but economists predict the real figure will be larger.

"When we table the numbers on Monday, we expect that the debt-to-GDP ratio for 2023-2024 which we set out in the 2024 budget, will be met. And that is important, because the fiscal anchor is a declining debt-to-GDP ratio," she told a news conference.

Freeland repeatedly declined to respond when asked whether the deficit would be at or below $40.1-billion.

In the budget, Ottawa said the 2023-24 debt-to-GDP ratio would be 42.1% and decline gradually to 39% in 2028-29.

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