|
|
US budget deficit rises to record $455 bln- Treasury in 2008
Wed. October 15, 2008 09:55 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) The United States Treasury Department says the country's budget deficit has risen to a record 455 billion dollars, or 334 billion euros, for the fiscal year 2008. It is the largest deficit in US history and is almost triple that of 2007.
However, the Treasury statement did not revise the 2009 projected deficit, estimated at 482 billion dollars, despite the Treasury's commitment of potentially more than one trillion dollars to bail out the nation's banking system.
The 2008 deficit is 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Janet Yellen, head of the San Francisco branch of the Federal Reserve, says the US economy appears to be in a recession. The US defines recession as more than two quarters of decline in real GDP.
In an address to finance executives, Ms Yellen said the recent flow of economic data suggested that the economy was weaker than expected in the third quarter and that growth in the fourth quarter appeared to be even weaker.
She also said that virtually every major sector of the economy has been hit by the global financial meltdown.-RNW
News Category: World
Latest Headlines
|
News 
