The U.S. government kicked off fiscal year 2025 with a $257 billion budget deficit, according to the October Monthly Treasury Statement.
Last month’s shortfall represented an approximate 289 percent increase from a year ago. It also was worse than the consensus estimate of $211 billion.
The 12-month rolling deficit—between November 2023 and October 2024—is $2 trillion.
Daily borrowing amounts to $8 billion, according to estimates from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFRB).
Federal outlays rose by 25 percent year over year, totaling $584 billion. October spending was driven by Social Security ($125 billion), defense ($103 billion), and health ($85 billion).
Net interest payments—the federal government’s interest payments offset by interest income—were $80 billion, the fourth-largest budgetary item. This was down by 7 percent from October 2023, the first year-over-year drop since mid-2023….