The federal budget deficit expanded by $83.6 billion in December, the Treasury Department reported Tuesday, bringing the total deficit for the first three months of the 2009 fiscal year to $485.2 billion.
By comparison, the budget deficit for all of fiscal year 2008 was $455 billion. In fiscal 2007, it was $161 billion.
The deficit has ballooned in the first quarter of the fiscal year as the Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC began spending record amounts of the $7.2 trillion committed so far to bailouts, financial stabilization efforts and capital investments. The numerous emergency actions began as a result of the credit crisis that started in mid-September.
A decline in tax receipts, stemming from the 1.5 million jobs lost in the first three months of the fiscal year, also contributed to the soaring deficit.
read the CNN story
No comments:
Post a Comment