Recent Updates
- Australia: Population by Region (2017)
- New Zealand: External Migration (Mar); Australia: CPI (Q1)
- Japan: Service Producer Price Index, Checks and Bills Clearing (Mar)
- Malaysia: Business Cycle Indicators (Feb); Bangladesh: Nominal Wage Rates (Dec); China: FDI, Domestic Debt Securities, Stock Market, Oil Consumption (Mar)
- US: Existing Home Sales Detail (Mar)
- UAE: CPI (Mar), Dubai GDP (Q4); Lebanon: CPI (Mar);
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
PMIs Stabilize or Creep Higher After Drop-Off
In the EMU, both the services and manufacturing sectors took a substantial step down one month ago...
FIBER: Industrial Commodity Prices Strengthen Selectively
The FIBER Industrial Materials Price Index increased 0.4% during the last four weeks...
German PPI Accelerates
The German year-on-year PPI has generally been decelerating since early 2017...
U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Signal Continued Expansion
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% during March...
Philadelphia Fed Factory Conditions Improve; Prices Jump
The Philadelphia Fed reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rose to 23.2 during April...
by Tom Moeller March 13, 2008
The U.S. government ran a budget deficit of $175.6B last month, quite a bit higher than last year's February deficit of $120B.
For the first five months of FY08 the government ran a budget deficit of $263.3B versus a deficit of 162.2B during the first five months of FY07.
For the fiscal year to date, growth in federal receipts slowed to just 1.3%, down from 9.3% growth during the first five months of FY07. Lower stock prices and the weaker economy with its slower employment growth stalled growth in individual income tax receipts (44% of total receipts) at 0.7% from 12.8% last FYTD. Withheld income taxes grew 5.3%, half the rate of gain last year, but non-withheld taxes grew just 3.6% versus 20.9% growth during the five months of FY07.
Corporate income taxes (13% of total receipts) fell 4.8% due to lower corporate profits. During FY07 they rose 16.5% during the first five months. Unemployment insurance receipts fell 6.1% due to lower employment growth.
U.S. net outlays grew 10.2% early this fiscal year and that was nearly four times the growth early in FY07. Growth in defense spending (19% of total outlays) surged to 27.8% while Medicare expenditures (12% of outlays) surged 47.3%. Growth in social security spending (21% of outlays) held about steady at 4.8% but interest expense fell 1.5% as interest rates backed down a bit.
The Government's financial data is available in Haver's USECON database.
US Government Finance | February | January | Y/Y | FY 2007 | FY 2006 | FY 2005 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Budget Balance | -$175.6B | $17.8B | -$120.0B (2/07) | -$162.0B | -$248.2B | -$318.7B |
Net Revenues | $105.7B | $255.2B | -12.1% | 6.7% | 11.8% | 14.1% |
Net Outlays | $281.3B | $237.4B | 17.1% | 2.8% | 7.4% | 7.6% |