The US Treasury Department announced that the budget deficit in October rose to $121.7 billion, up $31.1 billion from a year ago. However, the increase is mainly because of quirks in the calendar.
October, the first month in the 2015 budge year, reported a higher deficit, but the deterioration is because the government had to spend $41 billion in November benefit payments in October as the first day of November was on a Saturday.
Receipts totaled $213 billion in October, an increase of 7% and spending totaled $334.4 billion, 15.5 percent higher than a year ago.
In 2014 the budget deficit decreased to $483.3 billion *the smallest since George W. Bush’s last full year as president).
Analysts expect that the deficit will continue to improve this year, with The Congressional Budget Office projecting a $469 billion deficit for 2015.
The CBO is forecasting that deficits will begin to rise later in the decade as baby boomers retire and Social Security and Medicare costs increase. People who were born between 1945 and the middle of the 1960s are a baby boomers.
