WASHINGTON -- The federal government posted a record budget deficit in February, pushing the overall deficit for the first five months of the budget year up 39 percent from a year ago.
The Treasury Department said Friday in its monthly report that the deficit hit an all-time high for February of $234 billion. That surpasses the old February deficit record of $232 billion set in 2012, the last year the deficit for the year topped $1 trillion.
For the first five months of this budget year that began on Oct. 1, the deficit totals $544.2 billion, up from a deficit of $391 billion in the previous budget year.
In its new budget sent to Congress last week, the administration is projecting that this year's deficit will total $1.09 trillion and will remain above $1 trillion for the next four years.
The administration's 2019 forecast would represent a 40 percent increase from last year's deficit of $779 billion.
According to the forecast, this year's deficit will be the largest imbalance since the government had a $1.1 trillion deficit in 2012. That was the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits during a period when the Obama administration had boosted spending to grapple with the 2008 financial crisis and lift the country out of the deepest recession since the 1930s.
Business on 03/25/2019