US budget deficit jumps 48 per cent in a year
WASHINGTON, USA
The US budget deficit jumped in August by 48 pe rcent from a year ago due to a calendar-forced payment shift, the Treasury said yesterday, while the fiscal year-to-date deficit was down 2 percent.
August’s $134.1 billion (J$11.4 trillion) deficit was modestly larger than the $129.4 trillion shortfall in July, but a large jump over August 2010, the Treasury said.
It said the shift of a key benefit payment from August to July in 2010 for calendar reasons distorted the situation, rather than any sharp change in this August’s receipts-expenditures balance.
For the October-August period, the first 11 months of the fiscal year, the deficit was only 2 percent lower than a year earlier, with receipts up 8 percent and outlays only 4 percent higher.
Tax receipts from individuals are higher but those from corporate players have plunged 16 percent overall, including both corporate taxes and tax refunds the firms earn.
AFP
