Canada General Government Net Debt to GDP

## What this measures

All levels of Canadian government's financial liabilities minus their financial assets, as a percent of GDP.

## Why it matters

Canadian governments hold large financial assets, notably the Canada and Quebec Pension Plan funds, so net debt is the measure Canada usually cites and the reason it compares well with other G7 countries.

## How to read it

Lower is stronger. Read it against the gross figure: the gap is the assets governments hold.

## What it does not say

These are national-accounts figures (Statistics Canada), not the federal budget measures Finance Canada reports, and they include unfunded public-sector pension liabilities. Compare countries only with the same definition. Netting assumes those assets could be used against the debt, which pension assets largely cannot.

## Source

Statistics Canada, table 38-10-0237-01 (vector v62698059), "Financial indicators of general government sector, national balance sheet accounts; General government net financial liabilities to gross domestic product (GDP)". Palanor pulls it from Statistics Canada's Web Data Service every day and rewrites recent periods so revisions carry through.

Source: Statistics Canada. Reproduced and distributed on an "as is" basis with the permission of Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada Open Licence.