It’s Official: Budget Deficit Falls to Pre-Recession Levels

The federal budget deficit, after rising to more than a trillion dollars a year at the height of the Great Recession, has fallen to pre-recession levels and is now lower than the annual average of the past 40 years, Obama administration officials confirmed on Wednesday.

Final figures for fiscal year 2014, which ended on Sept. 30, showed a shortfall of $483 billion. That is $197 billion less than the previous year and $165 billion less than President Obama had projected in his annual budget request. The improvement, which was expected,...