In shambles: US budget deficit hovers above $1t

WASHINGTON: The US federal budget deficit for the just-ended 2012 fiscal year shrank by $207 billion from the prior year, but still marked its fourth straight year above $1 trillion, Congress’ budget referee estimated on Friday. The deficit equaled about 7% of US economic output, down from 8.7% in 2011, 9% in 2010 and 10.1% in 2009, but it was still greater than in any other year since 1947, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said. Economists generally consider any deficit that exceeds 3% of US gross domestic product to be unsustainable in the long term. The office said that $75 billion surplus in September helped to hold the full-year fiscal 2012 deficit to $1.09 trillion. The surplus was just the second month in the black for the US government post-financial crisis.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2012.