Ottawa posts $9-billion deficit in March

OTTAWA — Treasury Board President Tony Clement will publicly take on federal responsibility for the massive Ring of Fire mineral discovery in northern Ontario Tuesday. He’ll be walking on eggshells as he makes his first speech on the chromite and nickel interest in Thunder Bay Tuesday afternoon. That’s because the Ring of Fire file is not only complex, it is also controversial among environmentalists, First Nations and many of the communities who would be affected by the large-scale building of infrastructure and decades of mining.

Moments ago, and a few hours ahead of the president's State of the Union speech, the FMS announced (with a 20 minutes early leak), that in January the deficit of the US government was in fact a surplus of some $2.883 billion, better than the expected $2 billion deficit. This was the first January surplus since 2008, and was an improvement on the already impressive $1.191 billion deficit from December, which in turn brings the total fiscal year to date deficit to $290 billion.

Bloomberg reports Japan Posts Back-to-Back Current-Account Deficit in December. Japan posted back-to-back monthly current-account deficits for the first time since 1981, highlighting challenges for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s campaign to revive the economy.

Federal government posts deficit for April through July of $3-billion, down from $5.9-billion in same period last year

At some point, I suggest now, Japan needs to stop blaming the earthquake and tsunami for its collapse in exports. Furthermore, Japan is going to have difficulty financing its debt unless its turns the situation around quickly.

China said Saturday it posted its first monthly trade deficit in six years in March, at 7.2 billion dollars, in news that was likely to bolster Beijing's argument for a low yuan.Customs authorities also said China's exports rose 24.3 percent in March to 112.1 billion dollars from the same month a year earlier, and imports soared 66 percent year-on-year to 119.3 billion dollars.Commerce minister Chen Deming had already laid the ground for the news, warning last month that the nation's export-dependent economy was likely to experience a trade deficit in March.

South Korea posted its first trade deficit in two years in January as falling overseas demand hit exports but inflation eased, official figures showed Wednesday.The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said exports last month fell 6.6 percent from a year earlier to $41.54 billion.Imports rose 3.6 percent to $43.49 billion from January 2011, leaving a deficit of $1.96 billion compared to a surplus of $2.9 billion a year before.

Ottawa posts $2.2-billion deficit for June