US budget deficit falls below three percent of GDP in 2014: CBO

The US budget deficit fell to 2.8 percent of the economy's output in fiscal year 2014, as government revenues rose sharply, official data showed Wednesday. The federal government's deficit was $486 billion in the fiscal year that ended on September 30, down from $680 billion, or 4.1 percent of gross domestic product, in fiscal year 2013, the Congressional Budget Office said in a preliminary estimate.
The Treasury will publish the actual fiscal 2014 deficit later in October. As a percentage of output the deficit has fallen for five straight years from the peak of the Great Recession, in fiscal 2009, when it swelled to 9.8 percent of GDP. The large decline in the 2014 deficit was due to a nine percent increase in receipts, mostly taxes, offset by a modest 1.0 percent rise in spending, according to the CBO, the independent, non-partisan budget agency of Congress.