In an encouraging development for the US economy, the Budget deficit of the country has narrowed sharply in the first nine months of the current fiscal amid higher tax revenues and an improving economy.
In a statement released on Friday, the US Treasury Department said that the budget deficit of the federal government for the nine month period that ran between October and June totaled USD 366 billion.
According to the US Treasury Department, its surplus for the month of June totaled USD 71 billion. It was USD 130 billion deficit in May.
The deficit totaled USD 366 billion for the first nine months of this fiscal. Good news is that it is down 28 percent from the same period last year.
The fiscal deficit is down 28 percent from the same period in 2013. With the new figures, the US has recorded the lowest annual deficit since 2008, the period of great financial recession.
It is noteworthy, the fiscal year of the United States began on October 1.
Notably, the US deficit hit its latest peak in 2009, a year after the financial crunch, but has since then shrunk amid the factors including higher taxes, government spending cuts and slowly improving economy.
- US surplus for June totaled USD 71 billion. It was USD 130 billion deficit in May.
- Tax receipts are up 8 percent compared to the prior year-to-date.
- Spending has increased 1 percent.
- The deficit totaled USD 366 billion between October 2013 and June 2014.
- In 2008, US recorded a deficit of USD 458.6 billion, record high for deficits up to that time.
- A deficit of USD 492 billion has been predicted by the Congressional Budget Office for the full budget year ending September 30.
- CBO projects the Budget deficits will total USD 7.6 trillion. They hope that the deficit will fall to USD 469 billion in 2015.
While Republicans slammed President Barack Obama, accusing him of failing to propose significant cost cuts to reduce soaring entitlement costs, the Democrats launches a counter attack.