US budget deficit rises to $244 billion in July

The US budget deficit increased 10% in July to $244 billion compared to the same month last year, according to the US Treasury Department.

The deficit rose last month to $23 billion from a deficit of $221 billion in July 2023.

Economists expected a deficit of $242 billion in July, according to Reuters.

Debt service costs continued to rise, with a Treasury official saying interest rates on the debt rose 21% to $89 billion last month, and the average interest rate rose 49 basis points to 3.33%.

In the first ten months of fiscal year 2024, the U.S. deficit fell 6% to $1.517 trillion, compared to $1.614 trillion in the same period in fiscal year 2023.

The government's fiscal year ends on September 30.

Biggest deficit

The United States runs its largest federal deficit outside of crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the global financial meltdown, and World War II, Bloomberg reported late last month.

The White House Office of Management and Budget expects the deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30 to reach nearly $1.9 trillion, or 6.6% of GDP.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the gap between revenues and expenditures could be as high as 6.7 percent.

According to figures from the Office of Management and Budget, government revenues will reach 17.6% of GDP this year, slightly above the 17.2% average the United States recorded from 1984 to 2023.

However, total spending is expected to exceed the average during that period by more than 24.2% to 21.1%, supporting the Republican argument that increased spending is the source of the problem, according to Bloomberg.