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US registers a budget deficit of $135.2bn
December 12, 2013, 7:51 am

Budget negotiators in the US Congress reached an agreement Tuesday on a two-year budget plan, eliminating threat of a government shutdown on January 15 when the existing funds expire [Getty Images]

Budget negotiators in the US Congress reached an agreement Tuesday on a two-year budget plan, eliminating threat of a government shutdown on January 15 when the existing funds expire [Getty Images]

The US federal government registered a budget deficit of about $135.2 billion in November, the second month of the 2014 fiscal year, the US Treasury Department said Wednesday.

The federal government raked in a revenue of $182.5 billion last month, about 12.8 per cent higher than the year-ago level.

Spending totaled $317.7 billion, compared with $333.8 billion a year earlier. Higher revenue and lower spending resulted in a budget gap 21.4 per cent lower than November 2012.

The combined budget deficit in the first two months of the current fiscal year totaled $226.8 billion, 22 per cent lower than the imbalance for the same period of the 2013 fiscal year.

Budget negotiators in the US Congress reached an agreement Tuesday on a two-year budget plan, eliminating threat of a government shutdown on January 15 when the existing funds expire.

The plan sets spending levels above $1 trillion for both 2014 and 2015 fiscal years while replacing part of the automatic spending cuts with some spending savings.

It must be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

As revenue increased and spending dwindled, the US federal government budget deficit narrowed to $680 billion for the 2013 fiscal year ending September, the lowest in five years.

 

Source: Agencies