The US budget deficit has risen to a record high

The US federal government deficit in the first five months of the current fiscal year rose to a record level of $ 1.05 trillion. The increase in expenditures for resolving the coronavirus pandemic has far outpaced the increase in tax revenues. The US Treasury Department reported that the budget deficit for October to February was 68 percent higher than the deficit in the same period a year ago. The US federal budget deficit in the first five months of the current fiscal year comfortably surpassed the previous five-month deficit record of 2010, when the government spent money to get the country out of the deep recession caused by the 2008 financial crisis. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a forecast that the budget deficit for the fiscal year to September 30, 2021, will be $ 2.3 trillion. However, this estimate does not include the cost of the $ 1.9 trillion package of aid to President Joe Biden approved by the US Congress on Wednesday. Nancy Vanden Houten, an economist at Oxford Economics, estimates that the latest stimulus measures will push this year's budget deficit to $ 3.4 trillion.