Monthly Budget Review: Summary for Fiscal Year 2025
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In fiscal year 2025, which ended on September 30, the federal budget deficit totaled
$1.8 trillion—a decrease of $41 billion (or 2 percent) from the shortfall recorded in the previous
year.
In fiscal year 2025, which ended on September 30, the federal budget deficit totaled $1.8 trillion—a decrease of $41 billion (or 2 percent) from the shortfall recorded in the previous year. Revenues and outlays alike increased from 2024 totals. Revenues rose by 6 percent, or $317 billion; increases in collections of individual income taxes and customs duties were partially offset by a decline in corporate tax receipts. Outlays grew by 4 percent, or $275 billion, with increases occurring in several areas, including the largest benefit programs and net interest on the public debt (which, for the first time, surpassed $1 trillion). Those increases were partly offset by decreases recorded for federal student loan programs, deposit insurance, and the Small Business Administration. The 2025 amounts reported here differ somewhat from amounts described in the Monthly Budget Review: September 2025 because they reflect the subsequently reported data in the Monthly Treasury Statement for September 2025.
The federal deficit in 2025 was equal to 5.9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), a decrease from 6.3 percent of GDP in 2024. The 2025 deficit expressed as a percentage of GDP is greater than the 50 year average of 3.8 percent and has been exceeded only eight times since 1946 (from 2009 through 2012 and in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024). Federal debt held by the public increased in 2025 relative to the size of the economy—rising to 99.8 percent from 97.4 percent of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2024.
Outlays in fiscal year 2024 were reduced because October 1 (the first day of the fiscal year) fell on a weekend. As a result, certain payments totaling $72 billion were shifted from 2024 into 2023. If not for those shifts, the deficit in 2025 would have been 6 percent smaller—instead of 2 percent smaller—than it was in 2024.
Early in the next calendar year, CBO will publish The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2026 to 2036. That report will provide CBO’s economic and budgetary projections for the 2026-2036 period, covering topic areas including the 2025 reconciliation act, tariffs, and immigration.
The House and Senate Committees on the Budget have instructed CBO to publish the Monthly Budget Review during the current lapse in federal appropriations because the report provides information that the Congress needs to carry out its Constitutional functions. Because of the lapse in funding, some data that CBO typically would use for its analysis were unavailable.
