U.S. June Budget Deficit Widens on 9.3% Spending Increase

The U.S. government’s budget deficit widened in June, as spending jumped 9.3 percent from the same month a year ago.

The deficit expanded 38.7 percent to $59.7 billion from a $43.1 billion shortfall in June 2011, the Treasury Department said today in Washington. The gap matches the projected $60 billion deficit, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. For the first nine months of this fiscal year the deficit was 6.8 percent narrower than in the year-earlier period.