Budget Deficit Totals Hit $735B through January

The U.S. federal budget deficit widened in January to about five times the year-earlier level, reflecting spending on pandemic relief payments approved by Congress during the prior month.

The gap increased to $162.8 billion last month, from $32.6 billion in January 2020, according to a Treasury Department report Wednesday. In the first four months of the fiscal year that began in October, the deficit amounted to $735.7 billion -- a record for the period -- compared with $389.2 billion a year earlier, before the coronavirus struck. The report, the first...

The U.S. government posted a budget deficit of $163 billion in January, a record high for the month and a $130 billion jump from the deficit in the same month last year, as a new round of direct payments to individuals were distributed, the Treasury said on Wednesday.

Receipts for January rose 3% from the year-earlier period to $385 billion, while outlays grew 35% to $547 billion. Both receipts and outlays were record highs for January. For the first four months of the 2021 fiscal year, the deficit rose 89%...