The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the federal government’s budget deficit at $588 billion for the 2016 fiscal year Sept. 30 in an increase of $149 billion over the figure calculated in FY 2015.CBO said Friday that the increase in 2016 deficit was the first since 2009 as total receipts and total outlays reached $3.3 trillion and $3.86 trillion, respectively, in FY 2016.
CBO estimates that FY 2016 revenues increased less than 1 percent year-over-year and spending grew 5 percent over FY 2015 figures.
The deficit represented an estimated 3.2 percent of gross domestic product versus the 2.5 percent GDP recorded in 2015.
CBO also noted that nearly $41 billion of the deficit increase was the result of a shift in the timing of government payments that would have normally occurred in FY 2017 in light of Oct. 1, 2016 falling on a weekend.
The federal government started its 2017 fiscal year on Monday, Oct. 3.
CBO’s estimates put the surplus for the month of September 2016 at $33 billion to show a decline of $58 billion from the prior year period.
