There are two entries in supplementary estimates (B) related to interest costs. The first is interest on unmatured debt, with a total estimate today of $18.5 billion or $18.6 billion. Then a separate entry just a few lines below on other interest costs.
The presentation of our interest costs separated in this way responds to recommendations of the Auditor General and they are being presented in these supplementary estimates in this way for the first time. So it reflects, at the recommendation of the Auditor General, better information and more transparency in terms of the component elements of our interest costs.
On unmatured debt, this is the interest cost of outstanding bonds and certificates of indebtedness. There's a debt management strategy that is presented as part of the budget that is designed within the Department of Finance in collaboration with the Bank of Canada. It meets a number of different objectives, first and foremost, servicing our government operations, but also responding to both domestic and global needs in the debt market in terms of the various maturities, the durations of different offerings.
What we're seeing here in supplementary estimates (B) reflects a decrease in the private sector forecast for interest rates from 1.3% at the time of the budget to something like .93% right now and this is in keeping, again, with developments globally, in Europe, the United States, and Canada.