May Federal Budget Deficit Climbs 12.8% Over Previous Year

The government posted a $25.47-billion budget deficit last month, 12.8% more red ink than in May, 1988, but the shortfall so far this year still is smaller than it was a year earlier, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday.

The May deficit followed a record surplus of $40.57 billion in April, when government coffers were fattened by an unusually large surge in income tax payments.

Last month, revenues were up 19.1% from May, 1988, to $71.12 billion, while spending was up 17.4% from a year earlier to $96.58 billion.

For the first eight months of the 1989 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the budget deficit totaled $113.32 billion, 11.8% less than the $128.43 billion shortfall registered by the same time last year. For all of last fiscal year, the deficit totaled $155.1 billion.