U.S. June budget deficit shrinks to $66 billion after calendar shifts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government recorded a $66 billion budget deficit for June that was reduced sharply by a shift of benefit payments into May that ballooned that month's deficit to $347 billion, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

The Treasury said that the $66 billion June deficit nominally fell 71% from the $228 billion deficit recorded in June 2023.

Without the June calendar adjustments in both years, the Treasury said the June 2024 deficit would have been $159 billion, up 3% or $5 billion from the year-ago gap.

June receipts were $466 billion, up 11% from June 2023, but the increase was due in part to another calendar effect, deferments to the payment of non-withheld individual income taxes in many states last year due to natural disasters that held back the June 2023 receipts.

June outlays fell 18% to $532 billion, but without the calendar adjustments - made because June 2024 and July 2023 both started on weekends - the outlays would have been up 11% to $625 billion. Outlays for the month also included a $60 billion increase for the Department of Education's readjustment of long-term student loan subsidies due to recent debt relief modifications.

For the first nine months of the 2024 fiscal year, the U.S. deficit fell 9% to $1.268 trillion from $1.393 trillion in the same period of fiscal 2023. The government's fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

Year-to-date receipts were up 10% to $3.754 trillion, while outlays for the period were up 5% to $5.022 trillion, the Treasury said.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)