国际英语新闻：U.S. federal deficit tops one trillion dollars

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal budget deficit topped one trillion dollars in the first nine months ended June this fiscal year, the Treasury Department reported on Tuesday.

According to a report released by the Treasury Department, through the first nine months of 2010 budget year, the U.S. federal deficit totals 1 trillion dollars, down 7.6 percent from the 1.09 trillion dollars imbalance run up during the same period a year ago.

In June, federal deficit totaled 68.4 billion dollars, down from the all-time high of 94.3 billion dollars in June 2009, but was still the second highest June deficit on record.

In fiscal year 2009 which ended in September last year, the U.S. federal deficit soared to a historical high level of 1.42 trillion dollars. It was expected that the red ink in fiscal year 2010 will be around 1.5 trillion dollars.

The ballooning deficit problem has drawn wide concerns under the circumstance of a sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

Earlier this month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged the United States to rein in its soaring budget deficit.

"The central challenge is to develop a credible fiscal strategy to ensure that public debt is put -- and is seen to be put -- on a sustainable path without putting the recovery in jeopardy," the IMF said in a report.