WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department says it expects to borrow $392 billion in the current quarter to finance the largest annual budget deficit in history.
The projection is $86 billion lower than the estimate the department issued in November, when it expected to borrow $478 billion. The improvement is largely due to higher-than-expected repayments of about $90 billion in bailout funds by large banks.
The department also says it borrowed $260 billion in last year’s fourth quarter, below an earlier estimate of $276 billion. Treasury expects to borrow $268 billion in the second quarter of this year.
The projections come the same day that President Barack Obama issued a $3.83 trillion budget that forecast a record $1.56 trillion deficit, an increase from the $1.42 trillion deficit in the 2009 budget year.
