The federal budget deficit was $377 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, CBO estimates—$196 billion less than the deficit during the same period last year, and slightly larger than the deficit recorded during the same period two years ago.
The federal budget deficit was $377 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimates—$196 billion less than the deficit recorded during the same period last year, and slightly larger than the deficit recorded during the same period two years ago, right before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Revenues were $248 billion (or 31 percent) higher and outlays were $52 billion (or 4 percent) more in October through December 2021 than during the same period last fiscal year.
As was the case in fiscal year 2021, outlays increased in the first quarter of this fiscal year because certain payments that otherwise would have been due on January 1, a holiday, were instead made in December. Last year, certain Social Security payments (totaling $24 billion) that were due January 3 also were shifted to December 2020 because January 3 fell on a Sunday. This year, by contrast, there was no such shift: January 3 was a Monday. If those various shifts had not occurred, the first-quarter deficit (through December 2021) in fiscal year 2022 would have been $353 billion, or $174 billion less than the first-quarter deficit (through December 2020) of $526 billion in fiscal year 2021, a decrease of 33 percent.
