COVID-19 pandemic.The result, posted this morning, is the combination of an estimated total of $169 billion in federal spending on emergency aid and a historic drop in economic output.The budget office estimates the economy could shrink by 6.8 per cent in 2020, the weakest showing since 1981 and double the record of 3.2 per cent shrinkage in 1982.
The overall deficit figure is only $3.8 billion higher than budget officer Yves Giroux’s previous predictions, which his report says is due to a better economic outlook in the second half of the year that offsets some new spending.Previously, Giroux estimated the economy could shrink by 12 per cent in 2020.Giroux stresses that the figures are the outcome of one of many possible scenarios and not a.