U.S. posts $129 billion January deficit on calendar shifts, higher outlays

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The federal government posted a $129 billion budget deficit for January, up sharply from an unusually low $22 billion deficit in January 2024 due to calendar shifts in benefit payments as well as outlays for Social Security, Medicare, interest and other items that grew faster than receipts, the U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday.

The Treasury said that January receipts came in at $513 billion, up 8% or $36 billion from a year earlier. January outlays were $642 billion, up 29% or $143 billion from a year earlier.

Excluding the calendar shifts, the adjusted deficit increase for January would have been $21 billion, the Treasury said.

But the year-to-date deficit came in at a record $840 billion for the first four months of fiscal 2025, which started on October 1.

That was up 58% or $308 billion from a year earlier, an increase that a Treasury official said was due partly to the prior year tax receipts being inflated by some $85 billion deferred tax payments from the previous fiscal year.

Year-to-date receipts came in at $1.596 trillion, up 1% or $11 billion from the same period a year earlier, while outlays totaled $2.436 trillion, up 15% or $319 billion from the prior year period. Both outlays and receipts for the first four months of fiscal 2025 also were records for the period, the Treasury official said.