US budget deficit narrows sharply in first eight months of this fiscal year
13/6/2007 15:42
The US federal budget deficit is running much slower through the first
eight months of the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2006, the Treasury
Department reported yesterday.
Data released by the department showed that
the budget deficit through May totaled US$148.5 billion, down 34.6 percent from
the same period a year ago.
The improvement came as growth in revenues
outpaced the growth in spending.
So far this fiscal year, revenues have
increased by 8 percent from a year ago to an all-time high of 1.6688 trillion
dollars, while outlays have rose at a slower pace of 2.5 percent to 1.8172
trillion dollars, also hitting a record.
For May, however, the deficit surged
to US$67.7 billion, up 57.8 percent from the same month of 2006.
The surge
resulted from the fact that the Internal Revenue Service was more efficient in
processing tax returns this year, meaning more revenue was collected in April
with fewer tax collections left to be counted in May, according to
analysts.
At present, the Bush administration is expecting the budget deficit
for all of the current fiscal year to be US$244 billion, slightly below the
US$248.2 billion in the 2006 fiscal year, which had been the lowest imbalance in
four years.
But the Congressional Budget Office now is projecting the deficit
for the full fiscal year to be US$177 billion.
US government budget deficit
set a record of US$413 billion in 2004. In the budget sent to Congress in
February for 2008, the Bush administration projected the government could
eliminate the deficit completely and return to a surplus by 2012.
The federal
budget was in surplus for four years from 1998 through 2001.
Xinhua
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