国际英语新闻：U.S. budget deficit hits record high in first six months of current fiscal year

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal budget deficit soared to 956.8 billion dollars in the first six months of the current fiscal year, the highest on record for this period, the Treasury Department reported on Friday.

    The deficit for October 2008 through March 2009 has already surpassed the imbalance for all of last year, which was 454.8 billion dollars, a full-year record.

    In the first six months, the government's revenues totaled 989.8 billion dollars, down by 13.6 percent from the year-ago period, reflecting weaker corporate tax revenues and falling individual tax payments as a result of a deepening recession.

    Government spending over the period, however, shot up by 33.4 percent from a year ago to 1.95 trillion dollars. Much of that surge reflected massive costs for the financial bailout package the Congress approved last October.

    The Obama administration has projected that the federal budget deficit will hit an all-time high of 1.75 trillion dollars in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, 2009.