摘要:Canada¡¯s accumulated net federal
debt for fiscal 1997-98
(ended March 31) was $579.7 billion,
about 68 per cent of the nat
ion¡¯s annual gross domestic
product1 or $20,000 for every man,
woman and child. More importantly,
the cost of servicing this debt
is still more than $40 billion, having
peaked at $46.9 billion in fiscal
1995-96. At more than 27 per cent of
total federal expenditure, and 4.8
per cent of GDP, debt servicing has
been the largest item in the federal
government¡¯s expenditure budget
for many years now..