OTTAWA: Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver will meet the country’s leading private-sector economists on April 9 to discuss the economic outlook in what is typically one of the final steps before the federal government releases its budget.
The meeting will take place in Ottawa, a spokesman for the minister said Monday. He said no date has been set for the budget release.
The planned meeting comes as the Canadian economy slows amid a deep decline in crude oil prices, which has prompted economists to downgrade their forecasts for 2015 after the release of disappointing figures for exports, factory shipments and retail sales. The Canadian government uses the average forecast from the country’s private-sector economists as the basis for its budget-planning outlook.
Canada usually releases its budget before March 31, the end of its fiscal year, but Mr. Oliver said it would be delayed this year because he needed extra time to gauge the economic fallout from the swoon in crude oil prices. Crude is Canada’s biggest export.
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz said last week there would be “quite a lot” of economic weakness in the first three months of 2015 due to lower oil prices, which reduce incomes overall in Canada.
Canada’s governing Conservatives–which must face re-election this year in a vote likely in October–have already unveiled a tax-relief plan aimed at couples with children, and set aside billions for infrastructure spending, in an effort to provide some stimulus to the economy. Even with the swift decline in oil prices, government officials have reiterated Ottawa remains on course to produce a balanced budget in the 2015-16 fiscal year.
In past years, the government’s annual budget plan was released about two weeks after the day the finance minister huddled with economists.
