By Dan Burns
(Reuters) – The U.S. budget deficit totaled $2.772 trillion during fiscal 2021, below the prior year’s record shortfall but still reflecting a second straight year of massive spending to support households and businesses through the coronavirus pandemic, the Treasury Department said on Friday.
The United States posted a deficit of $3.132 trillion in fiscal 2020, when the federal government first started spending frantically in response to the pandemic. The $360 billion drop in the deficit reflected the rebound in economic activity this year as rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines and relief payments to households helped to fuel a powerful recovery from last year’s recession.
“Today’s joint budget statement is further evidence that America’s economy is in the midst of a recovery,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement issued with the acting head of the Office of Management and Budget, Shalanda Young.
Receipts for the full fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, totaled $4.046 trillion, an increase of $626 billion, or 18.3%, from fiscal 2020, with higher individual and business income taxes from an improving economy fueling the rise, Treasury said.
Fiscal 2021 outlays jumped by $266 billion, or 4.1%, to $6.818 trillion, with the increase driven by continued spending from legislation enacted to support the economy through the pandemic, the department said.
(Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Paul Simao)
