The Finance department says Ottawa had a $5.3-billion deficit in August alone.

That brought the accumulated federal deficit for the first five months of this financial year to a massive $23.7 billion.

At this time last year, Ottawa was in surplus by $1.1 billion.

Ottawa's is currently estimating it will have a $56-billion deficit by the time the fiscal year ends March 31, so it appeared to be on track as of August.

The Finance department says about $11 billion of the current year's deficit was attributed to spending measures adopted in the budget to stimulate the economy.

The rest of the deficit was due to reduced revenues and increased costs.

Income tax receipts from businesses are down 10.9 per cent and spending on employment insurance is up.