(Adds details from report, comments from leaders, byline)
By Leah Schnurr and Randall Palmer
OTTAWA, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Canada posted a budget surplus
in 2014-15 to end a string of deficits a year earlier than
expected, final numbers showed on Monday, bringing welcome news
for the Conservatives' re-election campaign.
The country had a surplus of C$1.9 billion ($1.4 billion),
the finance department's Annual Financial Report of the
Government of Canada showed. The deficit had been projected at
C$2.0 billion in the most recent budget released in April.
It was the first time Canada was in the black since 2007-08.
The government ran six consecutive years of deficits starting in
2008-09 after launching a spending program to boost the economy
following the global credit crisis.
The government has promised to run a surplus for the current
fiscal year, but with oil prices slumping and the economy
starting the year in a mild recession, the opposition has
questioned whether it will succeed. The left-leaning New
Democratic Party (NDP) has also pledged balanced budgets, while
the Liberals plan to run deficits in order to spend on stimulus.
Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau said Prime Minister
Stephen Harper had cut spending in order to deliver the balanced
budget ahead of the election.
"It was a political goal that actually has helped us slide
into ... recession," Trudeau said.
Still, the news could bolster Harper's argument the
government will be able to stay in surplus and give credibility
to the Conservatives' claim of good fiscal management. Harper
said in a statement on Monday that "now is not the time for
long-term deficits or higher taxes."
NDP leader Tom Mulcair called the numbers good news for
Canadians that show "that the NDP is going to be starting off on
the right foot."
Revenue for 2014-15 was C$3.0 billion higher than expected
on gains in personal and corporate income taxes. Total program
expenses were moderately lower.
The better-than-expected result gives some upside risk to
the government's budget projections over the coming years,
though weaker growth prospects since April will temper that,
Laura Cooper, economist at RBC, wrote in a note.
A budget watchdog in July forecast a C$1.0 billion deficit
this year after using up the budget's C$1 billion contingency
reserve, in contrast to the government budget forecast for a
C$1.4 billion surplus, plus the reserve.
In the first three months of the current fiscal year,
Canada posted a C$5.01 billion surplus, helped by the sale of
General Motors (NYSE:GM) GM.N shares.
($1 = $1.3254 Canadian)
(Editing by Alden Bentley and Meredith Mazzilli)