The U.S. federal budget deficit totaled US$485.2 billion in the first three months of the current fiscal year, the highest on record for a first quarter, the Treasury Department reported on Tuesday.

While the imbalance from October through December 2008 was larger than the record for a full fiscal year of US$454.8 billion set last year, the deficit is on track to surpass one trillion for all of fiscal 2009, which began on Oct. 1, 2008.

In the first three months, the government's revenues totaled US$547.4 billion, down by 9.7 percent from the year-ago period. Spending over that period rose 44.8 percent from a year ago to US$1.03 trillion.

For December alone, the budget deficit totaled 83.6 billion dollars, in contrast to a surplus of US$48.3 billion a year ago. Economists had been expecting a lower imbalance of US$83 billion.

All the red ink is occurring because of the massive spending on the US$700-billion financial rescue program and a prolonged recession which has depressed tax revenues.

The Congressional Budget Office projected last week that the federal budget deficit will hit an all-time high of US$1.2 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year.

The estimate doesn't include the cost of a huge economic stimulus bill that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is seeking approval from Congress. The bill is expected to be around US$800 billion over next two years.

In the 2007 fiscal year, the federal deficit dropped by 34.4 percent to US$162 billion, a five-year low since an imbalance of US$159 billion in 2002, reflecting faster growth in government revenues than spending.

The 2002 performance marked the first budget deficit after four consecutive years of budget surpluses.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2009)