$1,700,000,000,000 US Budget Deficit Shattered in 2023 As IMF Issues Warning on America’s ‘Worrying and Deteriorating’ Fiscal Trajectory

New numbers show the US government’s spending exceeded its revenues to the tune of more than a trillion dollars in the recently concluded fiscal year.

The data comes from the newly released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report which monitors the government’s receipts and outlays for the 2023 fiscal year, which ran from October 1st, 2022 to September 30th, 2023.

The government’s budget deficit for the last fiscal year surged to $1.7 trillion – $300 billion more than the budget shortfall recorded in the 2022 fiscal year.

The CBO notes that during the 2023 fiscal year, the US government spent $6.131 trillion while generating about $4.441 trillion in taxes and other revenues.

The increase in the federal budget deficit comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expresses concern over the country’s deteriorating fiscal situation.

Speaking at the 2023 World Economic Outlook, IMF director Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas calls on the US government to change its approach toward spending and taxes as the country deals with sticky inflation and high interest rates.

“Most worrying is the case of the United States, where fiscal deficits have deteriorated substantially in 2023. Fiscal policy in the US should not be procyclical, even less so at this stage of the inflation cycle…

With lower growth, higher interest rates, and reduced fiscal space, structural reforms of the right kind at the right time become key.”

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