The U.S. Treasury Department said today that during the six-month period from October 2020 to March this year, the United States recorded a record fiscal deficit, a surge of about 130 percent over the same period of the previous fiscal year, reflecting the considerable spending on economic revitalization programs during the new coronavirus epidemic.
U.S. fiscal spending from October last year to March this year compared with the same period of the previous year, an increase of slightly more than $1 billion. The previous fiscal year ended in the same period last March, when the U.S. 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) blockade measures have not yet been sustained, the government has not yet implemented any large-scale relief program.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s monthly report, the fiscal deficit for the current fiscal year accumulated to the end of March this year amounted to $1.7 trillion, compared to the deficit of $743 billion for the same period of the previous fiscal year, an increase of about 130 percent.
The consequences of the epidemic, and the resulting job losses, have only begun to emerge since the end of March (last year),” the U.S. Treasury official told the media.
Officials said that the cumulative fiscal year deficit calculated up to that point did not yet clearly reflect the impact of the (bailout) program and the COVID-19 epidemic on the economy; however, by the same time this year it was clearly deeply affected.
The U.S. Treasury Department also said that in March of this year alone, the U.S. fiscal deficit jumped 454% to $541 billion.
The U.S. Congress passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion bailout package in March, under which most U.S. families received a check for $1,400 per person, and the government’s deadline for granting unemployment benefits was extended, with most of these benefits having been disbursed in March.
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