OTTAWA -- The federal government ran a deficit of more than $57 billion over the first five months of its fiscal year, about $114 billion less than the treasury pumped out during the same stretch one year earlier.

The Finance Department's regular fiscal monitor says the budgetary deficit between April and August was $57.2 billion, down from the $170.5 billion recorded over the same months in 2020 when COVID-19 first struck.

Friday's report says the deficit now reflects current economic challenges caused by COVID-19, including ongoing public health restrictions.

Program spending, excluding net actuarial losses, between April and August was $190 billion, a decline of about $64.1 billion, or 25.2 per cent drop, from the $254.1 billion in the same period one year earlier.

The fiscal monitor says the decline largely reflects lower amounts paid in emergency benefits to individuals and businesses.

Year-over-year, emergency benefits to workers declined by 66.4 per cent, or $23.3 billion, to almost $11.8 billion from $35 billion, while the wage subsidy declined to $14.5 billion from $37.4 billion 
The Finance Department says the decline of $22.9 billion, or 61 per cent, for the wage subsidy program reflects drops in the number of eligible workers and the average subsidy per employee.

Revenues between April and August reached almost $149 billion, which was a $51.8-billion, or 53.3 per cent, increase from the $97.2 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year, driven primarily by higher tax revenues.

Public debt charges were almost $9.7 billion, up $600 million or 6.3 per cent from the almost $9.1 billion recorded between April and August of 2020, which largely reflects higher consumer price index adjustments on real return bonds.