WASHINGTON — The federal government ran a $1.9 billion budget surplus in December, the Treasury Department reported Tuesday.
The December surplus followed a $56.8 billion deficit in November and was smaller than the median $10 billion surplus projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters.
A Treasury official said that 25 of the last 61 Decembers have had surpluses. December contains a major tax due date for corporations that have the calendar year as their fiscal year, the official said.
Outlays in December totaled $333.5 billion, compared to $248.3 billion in November. Receipts totaled $335.3 billion in December, compared to $191.4 billion for the previous month.
In December 2013, the government ran a $53.2 billion surplus. That month, Freddie Mac paid Treasury an extra one-time payment of $24 billion, the Treasury official said.
Fiscal year to date, there was a $176.7 billion deficit, compared to a $173 billion deficit for the same period last year. The federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Year-over-year changes to December and year-to-date results were impacted by timing-related transactions, Treasury said. Taking into account calendar adjustments, the December 2014 surplus would have been $11 billion, $24 billion less than the surplus in December 2013. The fiscal-year-to-date deficit through December 2014 would have been $165 billion, $10 billion more than the adjusted deficit through December 2013.
