WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. last month posted its smallest monthly budget deficit in two years thanks to a rebounding economy that helped boost tax receipts, coupled with slower spending as some COVID relief programs ended.
The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that the December deficit of $21.3 billion was the smallest monthly deficit since a $13 billion shortfall in December 2019. That was before the COVID pandemic hit in in the U.S. and pushed millions of people out of work and sent the economy into a short but steep recession
For the first three months of this budget year, which began on Oct. 1, the government has recorded a deficit of $377.7 billion. That’s 30.1% below the shortfall run up during the same period a year ago when the government was still spending trillions of dollars to keep the economy from falling into an even deeper funk.
Many of those government support programs have now ended or are being tapped less as more people get back to work.