US fiscal deficit widens to $666bln

WASHINGTON: The U.S.  budget deficit widened to $666  billion for the fiscal year 2017 as  record spending more than offset  record receipts, the Treasury  Department said on Friday.  The 2017 deficit increased to  3.5 percent of gross domestic  product. The previous fiscal  year deficit was $586 billion,  with a deficit-to-GDP ratio of 3.2  percent.  The latest fiscal year, which  ended Sept. 30, straddled the  presidencies of Barack Obama,  a Democrat, and Donald Trump,  a Republican.  Accounting for calendar adjustments,  the 2017 fiscal year  deficit was $644 billion comparedwith  $546 billion the prior  year.  Fiscal 2017 revenues increased  1 percent to $3.315 trillion,  while spending rose 3 percent  to $3.981 trillion.  Since taking office in January,  the Trump administration  has sought to overhaul the U.S.  tax code with precise details  currently being worked on in  Congress.  The Republican tax plan currently  calls for as much as $6  trillion in tax cuts, which would  sharply reduce government revenues.  It has prompted criticism  that it favors tax breaks for  business and the wealthy and  could add trillions of dollars to  the deficit.  The administration  contends tax cuts will pay for  themselves by boosting economic  growth. In addition to  the annual deficit, the national  debt - the accumulation of past  deficits and interest due to  lenders to the Treasury - now  exceeds $20 trillion.  The non-partisan Congressional  Budget Office has said  the ever-rising debt levels are  unsustainable as the government  pays for the medical and  retirement costs of the aging  Baby Boomer generation.  For September, the U.S. government  recorded an $8 billion  surplus, a 76 percent drop from  the same month last year.  Economists polled by  Reuters had forecast the Treasury  reporting a $6 billion surplus  last month.  When accounting for calendar  adjustments, the surplus  lastmonth was $61 billion compared  with an adjusted surplus  of $73 billion the prior year.  A senior Treasury official  said outlays last month were a  record for the month of September.—  Reuters