15.09.2024. / 14:09
WASHINGTON – The US budget deficit neared the end of the fiscal year to the amount of 1.9 trillion dollars (1,900,000,000,000), the Ministry of Finance reported, highlighting the jump in interest costs on higher public debt.
PHOTO: Pixabay
From October last year to August this year, the US budget deficit amounted to 1,897 billion dollars and was 24 percent higher than in the same period last fiscal year, the ministry announced.
The American fiscal year ends in September.
The independent institute CBO estimated in June that in the entire fiscal year 2024, the budget deficit will amount to 1.9 trillion dollars, and it seems that “it will be close to that amount”, the ministry notes, reports the Index.
According to the estimate of the CBO, whose members are former officials of the central bank, the Ministry of Finance and former representatives in Congress, this would correspond to seven percent of GDP. In fiscal year 2023, according to their calculations, the budget deficit amounted to 1,695 trillion dollars, which corresponded to 6.3 percent of GDP.
The jump in the budget deficit in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2024 is the result of higher interest rates, the ministry notes. Interest expense was roughly 30 percent higher than in the same period in fiscal 2023, at $1.049 trillion.
The average interest rate was 3.35 percent in August and was almost half a percentage point higher than a year ago, a ministry official told reporters. Higher interest costs also reflect the higher amount of public debt, which exceeded 35 billion dollars.
Significant factors in this year’s shortfall include higher costs for the government’s Social Security and Medicare programs for the elderly and military spending, Treasury Department data showed.
Budget revenue increased in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2024 by 11 percent compared to the same period of fiscal year 2023, to $4.391 billion. The expenditure, on the other hand, increased by 14 percent, to 6,288 billion dollars. B92
Source: www.capital.ba
