Canada Debt Vs. GDP
After a number of federal surpluses helped pay down Canada's national debt, the recent recession has forced the nation to take on more. Canada's gross domestic product, GDP, meanwhile, has made modest gains since the start of the recent recession. As of early 2011, Canada's national public debt sits at around $564.5 billion and the GDP is around $1.336 trillion
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Gross Domestic Product
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A country's GDP is determined by total market value of goods and services produced by a country. This is calculated by adding the spending of governments, consumer and investments with the value of imports and subtracting the value of imports. Numbers on the previous quarter are usually reported at the end of the current quarter. Canada saw it's deepest drop in GDP in this century during the second quarter of 2009 when it posted a -1.8 percent change. In all of 2009, only the fourth quarter posted a positive result of 0.22 percent. In 2010, all quarters posted positive GDP growth.
National Debt
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According to Canada's fiscal update in the fall of 2010, the federal debt will increase by $171 billion. In the previous 10 or so years, the government was able to pay down about $105 of debt thanks to surplus revenue. The Canadian Taxpayers Foundation has a running clock on Canada's debt and can be seen online.
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GDP Ranking
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Canada ranks ninth in the world in GDP, according to the 2010 list from the International Monetary Fund, IMF. A 2009 list from the World Bank and CIA World Factbook both listed Canada as 10th. In the IMF list, Canada finished behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Brazil.
Debt-to-Growth Ratio
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A country's debt is compared to that of its GDP to determine its debt-to-growth ratio. The CIA World Factbook estimated in 2009 that Canada has the 14th highest debt percentage against its GDP at 82.5 percent. However, comparing the numbers mentioned, $564.5 billion debt versus $1.336 trillion, Canada's debt is 42.25 percent of its GDP, as of early 2011.
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References
- Government of Canada: Fiscal outlook
- Trading Economics: Canada GDP Growth Rate
- Royal Bank of Canada: Update of Economic and Federal Fiscal Projections
- CIA: The World Factbook: Country Comparison: Public Debt
- International Monetary Fund: World Economic Outlook Database, October 2010
- The World Bank: Canada
Resources
- Photo Credit parliament of canada image by Scott Wormington from Fotolia.com
