WASHINGTON (AP) – The federal government recorded a deficit of $107.1 billion in August, slightly lower than the July deficit. But the imbalance through 11 months of this budget year is up sharply from a year ago, reflecting higher spending and lower-than-expected tax revenues.
The Treasury Department said Tuesday that the deficit, with just one month to go in the budget year, totals $620.8 billion, up 17.1 percent from the same period a year ago. The August deficit was slightly lower than the $112.8 billion imbalance in July.
The Congressional Budget Office last month revised its estimate for the 2016 deficit up sharply to show an imbalance of $590 billion. That was up from a March projection of $534 billion. The budget year ends on Sept. 30 and September is expected to show a surplus.
The CBO estimate for the 2016 deficit is close to the $599.9 billion deficit that the Obama administration estimated when it released its mid-session budget review in July. Both projections are about one-third higher d but it is about one-third higher than the actual deficit in 2015 of $439.1 billion, the lowest deficit in eight years.
Through the first 11 months of this budget year, revenues total $2.91 trillion, a modest 0.9 percent higher than the same period in 2015, while outlays total $3.53 trillion, up 3.4 percent from the same period in 2015.