The federal government rang up a small deficit in the first two months of the current fiscal year, spending $832 million more than it collected in revenue.

By month, the Finance Department says the deficit for April was $19 million, while the deficit for May was $813 million.

In its Fiscal Monitor update, the department says the two-month deficit is much smaller than the $2 billion reported during the same period a year ago.

Revenues in April and May were five per cent higher than a year earlier, with both corporate tax and GST revenues rising 9.3 per cent.

On the other side of the ledger, program expenses were up 3.4 per cent from the previous year, mainly due to higher transfer payments.

For the 2011-2012 fiscal year as a whole, Ottawa has reported a preliminary deficit of $23.5 billion, but that figure is likely to be adjusted.