The federal government’s fiscal year 2011 has come to a close, and CBO estimates, in its latest Monthly Budget Review that the federal budget deficit for the year was about $1.30 trillion, approximately the same dollar amount as the shortfall recorded in 2010. The 2011 deficit was equal to 8.6 percent of gross domestic product, CBO estimates, down from 8.9 percent in 2010 and 10.0 percent in 2009, but greater than in any other year since 1945. CBO’s deficit estimate is based on data from the Daily Treasury Statements; the Treasury Department will report the actual deficit for fiscal year 2011 later this month.
The estimated deficit is slightly above what CBO projected in its August Budget and Economic Outlook mostly because revenues were a bit lower than expected.
Although the 2011 deficit was about the same as the 2010 deficit, that comparison is complicated by several factors, read on at http://cboblog.cbo.gov/?p=2857