Deficit Grows by 14% in First Three Months of Fiscal ’85
The federal government spent $15.2 billion more than it collected in December, making the deficit for the first three months of fiscal 1985 14.4% worse than a year earlier, the Treasury Department reported Friday.
For the first quarter of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, spending has outpaced revenues by $72.4 billion. This compares with a deficit of $63.3 billion during the same period in 1984.
The increase in interest payments on the debt, already the third biggest item in the budget, was even greater. Interest payments for the first quarter of this fiscal year totaled $49.4 billion, 23.3% above the level a year ago.
The Reagan Administration, which only last August was predicting that this year’s deficit would be lower than in 1984, is now braced for a red-ink total approaching $210 billion.
That would be well above the record of $195.4 billion set in fiscal 1983. The fiscal 1984 deficit was $175.3 billion.
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