The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the federal deficit totalled $25.5-billion over the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the Department of Finance said Friday, indicating a smaller deficit than Ottawa projected in November. The Globe's Bill Curry writes that Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne's fall budget had projected a deficit of $78.3-billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year. The minister will release a spring economic statement Tuesday. The government typically posts large one-month deficits in March, the final month of the fiscal year. Last March, Ottawa posted a $23.9-billion deficit. However, even a repeat of a deficit of that size for this March would mean Ottawa is well within its budgeted deficit forecast. The question private-sector economists raise is whether the Liberals will use that room for new spending. RBC assistant chief economist Cynthia Leach wrote Friday that while the federal deficit "is tracking well below budget," higher rates of spending for the final months of the fiscal year should mean that the updated bottom line lands "closer to budget numbers." The Nov. 4 budget projected the size of the federal deficit would decline each year through to the end of the decade.