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| U.S. Dec budget posted surplus, Bush blamed |
| 2005-01-12 |
| (Reuters) - The U.S. government ran a $1 billion budget surplus in December, helped by a rise in corporate tax payments, the Congressional Budget Office said in its latest budget report released on Friday. The surplus, which compared with an $18 billion deficit in the previous December, helped create a smaller fiscal deficit for the first three months of the 2005 fiscal year, than in the same quarter of the prior year. "In December, most corporations make their fourth quarterly payment of income taxes," the CBO said, adding that corporate tax refunds were lower than in the previous December. Congress' nonpartisan fiscal watchdog said the 2005 shortfall now stands at $114 billion, about $16 billion less than for the same period last year. The 2005 fiscal year began on Oct. 1. The Treasury Department is expected to release the final budget statement for December on Wednesday. Treasury Secretary John Snow said earlier on Friday that he planned to work with Congress to bring down the deficit, which hit a record $412 billion last year. Financial markets have been rattled by the huge budget and current account deficits and President George W. Bush has pledged to halve the deficit by 2009. But CBO numbers released earlier this year show that he is not on track to achieve this aim. CBO is projecting that the deficit will narrow slightly to $348 billion in 2005. It will update its forecast for 2005 and 2006-2015 on January 25. |
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