Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. budget deficit was little changed last month from a year earlier and narrower than economists predicted as tax receipts and spending declined.

The excess of spending over revenue totaled $111.4 billion in August, compared with $111.9 billion a year earlier, the Treasury reported in Washington. The shortfall totaled a record $1.38 trillion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. Spending declined 4.5 percent to $256.9 billion in August and revenue fell 7.3 percent to $145.5 billion.

President Barack Obama urged a joint session of Congress this week to pass a $900 billion health-care plan to contain medical costs, which are causing Medicare and Medicaid spending to surge. Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus program in February, and committed funds to rescue automakers and banks.

“We still have the rest of the stimulus package to spend and tax revenues are still going to be weak,” said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s in New York, before today’s report. “I’m not terribly optimistic about getting it under control.”

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast an August deficit of $139.5 billion, according to the median of 24 estimates. Projections ranged from deficits of $90 billion to $190 billion. The Congressional Budget Office on Sept. 8 estimated a budget shortfall of $117 billion for August.

The unemployment rate reached 9.7 percent in August, a quarter-century high, and employers have shed almost 7 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007. Overall economic growth, as measured by gross domestic product, contracted in the second half of last year and the first half of this year.

For all of fiscal 2009, the deficit will total $1.6 trillion as revenue falls and government spending increases at the fastest pace in 57 years, according to projections released Aug. 25 by the non-partisan CBO.

Next year the deficit will total $1.4 trillion, the CBO said. It also said it anticipated a “relatively slow and tentative” economic recovery because of “global economic weakness, continued strains in financial markets and households’ desire to rebuild their savings.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Del Giudice in Washington at vdelgiudicebloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 11, 2009 14:03 EDT