·
As it usually does in April, the U.S. government ran a budget surplus of
$159.3B. The figure was down slightly, however, from last
year's unusually large April surplus of $177.7B. Based on expectations
formed by Public Debt Transactions from the Daily Treasury Statement,
the budget surplus equaled the Consensus forecast. These Transactions
data are available in Haver's DAILY database.
· For the first seven months of FY08 the government ran a budget deficit of $152.2B; nearly double the deficit of $80.8B during the first seven months of FY07.
· For the fiscal year to date, federal receipts grew a paltry 3.0% from a year earlier. That compared to 11.2% y/y growth during the first seven months of FY07. Higher unemployment constrained the growth in individual income tax receipts (44% of total receipts) to 6.0% this year. Seventeen percent y/y growth had been logged during the first seven months of FY07. Growth in withheld income taxes of 5.6% was roughly half that of a year earlier and non-withheld taxes grew 7.3%, or roughly one quarter as during the first seven months of FY07.
· Lower corporate
profitability continued to crimp government revenues. Corporate income
taxes (13% of total receipts) amounted to $207.0B, a 6.0% decline from
receipts during the first seven months of FY07. During FY07 they rose 13.4%
during the first seven months.
· Unemployment insurance contributions fell 2.7% FYTD due to negative employment growth and Federal excise taxes fell 1.1%.
· U.S. net outlays grew 7.4% during the first seven months of FY08, more than double the outlay growth of FY07's first seven months. Growth in defense spending (19% of total outlays) also nearly doubled to a 10.6% growth rate but Medicare expenditures (12% of outlays) grew a much slower 2.1%. Growth in Social Security spending (21% of outlays) held about steady at 5.4% and interest expense grew 8.6%, held back by the recent decline in interest rates. Growth in outlays for income security (15% of outlays) held steady at 15.1% and health spending (10% of the total) grew 5.7%.
· The Government's financial data is available in Haver's USECON database.
· How Do EITC Recipients Spend Their Refunds? from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago can be found here.
· Financial Market Tremors: Causes and Responses is from Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard W. Fisher and it is available here.