Canada cut its forecast budget deficit for the 2021/22 fiscal year

  • finance ministry said the deficit would be C$144.5 billion ($112.4 billion), down 6.6% from the C$154.7 billion forecast in April.

Citing higher tax revenues and less emergency aid spending.

Earmarked fresh funds to fight the Omicron variant.

Also:

  • cut the forecast for 2021 real gross domestic product to 4.6% from 5.8% in April's budget
  • forecast Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio would be 48.0% in 2021/22, versus 51.2% forecast in April, falling to 44.0% in 2026/27

USD/CAD barely changed on the release:

usdcad chart 15 December 2021