WASHINGTON — The federal government ran a $52.9 billion budget deficit in March, the Treasury Department reported Monday.
The March deficit followed a revised $192.4 billion deficit in February, originally reported as $192.3 billion. The March deficit was larger than the median $43 billion deficit predicted by economists polled by Thomson Reuters.
Outlays in March totaled $287.1 billion, compared to $331.7 billion in February. Receipts totaled $234.2 billion in March, compared to $139.4 billion for the previous month.
In March 2014, the government ran a $36.9 billion deficit.
A Treasury official said that 49 of the last 61 Marches have had deficits. While March contains a major corporate tax due date, there is also a large amount of tax refunds paid during the month, the official said.
Fiscal year to date, there was a $439.5 billion deficit, compared to a $413 billion deficit for the same period last year. The federal government's 2015 fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2014.
Year-over-year changes to March and year-to-date results were impacted by timing-related transactions, Treasury said. Taking into account calendar adjustments, March 2015 would have had a $89 billion deficit, $18 billion more than the adjusted deficit in March 2014. The fiscal-year-to-date deficit through March 2015 would have been $475 billion, $28 billion more than the adjusted fiscal-year-to-date deficit through March 2014.
