US federal deficit widens to $85.5bn in March

04/14/06 - newratings.com

NEW YORK, April 14 (newratings.com) – The US federal government deficit widened in March, with a significant rise in government spending, the Treasury Department’s report published on Wednesday revealed.

According to the US Treasury Department’s monthly budget report, the nation’s federal spending climbed 13.7% year-over-year to $250 billion in March 2006. Government receipts climbed 10.6% to $164.6 billion last month. This resulted in the US federal deficit rising to nearly $85.5 billion in the month, from $71.2 billion in March last year. This not only set a record high for the month of March, but was also significantly short of the $87 billion surplus projected by the Congressional Budget Office. In the first six months of the 2006 budget year, which began on October 1 last year, the US federal deficit totaled $303 billion, representing a 2.8% increase from the same period a year earlier. For the year, the White House has projected the federal deficit at a record high of $423 billion.