Cost Of Combating Coronavirus: Full Year US Budget Deficit Projected At $3.7 Trillion, June Deficit At $864 Billion

The annual U.S. budget deficit exceeded $3 trillion for the year ending in June 2020 as stimulus spending soared and tax revenues plummeted due to mass unemployment and shuttered businesses during lockdown period, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The federal government’s budget deficit on a monthly basis stood as an unprecedented $864 billion in June, as US doled out huge sums of money to try to help small businesses stay afloat and transferred cash to unemployed workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. The country spent $1.11 trillion last month, up from $572 billion in May with most of the spending in June directed towards the Paycheck Protection Plan.

Paycheck Protection Program was created as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic relief bill and $349 billion was allocated to fund the PPP. However since it quickly ran out of funding, $310 billion in additional funding was provided.

For the current fiscal year US fiscal deficit ballooned to $2.7 trillion, compared to $747 billion in the same nine-month period last year ( annual budget period in the US runs from Oct 1. to Sept. 30)

According to the WSJ report, Congressional Budget Office has projected the annual deficit is on course to reach $3.7 trillion in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

US has so far estimated $3.3 trillion in new spending since March to help combat the impact of coronavirus shutdowns.

Tax and other revenue, meanwhile, totaled just $241 billion in June. A year earlier, the government took in $333 billion.