US budget deficit shrinks to lowest level since 2008

The US government's budget deficit for fiscal year 2014 shrank to its lowest level in six years as tax revenues rose amid a growing economy, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The deficit stood at $483 billion in the year that ended September 30, a decline of 29 percent from the 2013 fiscal year shortfall of $680 billion. It was the smallest deficit since 2008. The deficit fell below 3.0 percent of gross domestic product, or economic product, to 2.8 percent, a level last seen in 2007.
Last year's deficit-to-GDP ratio was "less than the average of the last 40 years," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said at a news conference. Revenues, mostly taxes, rose nine percent, while spending climbed only one percent. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Shaun Donovan, head of the Office of Management and Budget, credited President Barack Obama's leadership in the budget process for driving down the country's deficit. Referring to Obama's proposed fiscal year 2015 budget, they said in a statement that the new budget "continues this progress, bringing deficits down as a share of the economy to about two percent of GDP by the end of the next decade."