U.S. federal budget deficit drops to 248 billion dollars

The U.S. government ran a budget deficit of 248 billion dollars in the 2006 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, down from the prior year's figure of 319 billion dollars, says a preliminary estimate released Wednesday by the Treasury Department.

According to the Treasury, the government's overall receipts rose by 11.8 percent from the 2005 fiscal year to 2.407 trillion dollars, while spending increased by 7.3 percent to 2.654 trillion dollars in the fiscal year of 2006.

The shortfall of 248 billion dollars was the smallest budget deficit since a red ink of 157.8 billion dollars registered in 2002, which was the first deficit following four years of surpluses.

Also, the preliminary figure was better than the administration 's initial estimate of a deficit of 423 billion dollars that had been revised down to 296 billion dollars in July.

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal budget deficit for the 2006 fiscal year would be 250 billion dollars, or 1.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), down from 2.6 percent in fiscal 2005.

The Treasury did not give estimate of the deficit as a percentage of GDP on Wednesday.

The federal budget deficit hit a record of 413 billion dollars in the fiscal year of 2004.

Source: Xinhua