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US budget deficit to be $ 1. 65 trillion, this year

15 February 2011 08:27 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled his budget blueprint projecting a record deficit of $1.65 trillion for fiscal 2011 through Sept. 30 this year and pledging to cut the deficit by $1.1 trillion over the next decade to put the debt-ridden finances in order, stockAnalyst reported.

The budget deficit will represent 10.9 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, against 8.9 percent in fiscal 2010. As the deficit is estimated to total $1.10 trillion in fiscal 2012, the nation’s budget deficit will likely top the $1 trillion level for the fourth straight year.

Under the budget plan, however, the budget deficit is projected to shrink to $768 billion or 4.6 percent of GDP in fiscal 2013, an estimate that will attain the target of halving the budget deficit in terms of GDP ratio as the Group of 20 economic powers agreed at their summit in June 2010.

’’A decade of deficits, compounded by the effects of the recession and the steps we had to take to break it, as well as the chronic failure to confront difficult decisions, has put us on an unsustainable course,’’ Obama said in a statement in the budget proposal.

Under the blueprint, the Obama administration seeks $3.73 trillion for outlays for fiscal 2012 that covers a year from Oct. 1, a touch lower than $ 3.82 trillion in fiscal 2011.

Revenues are estimated to total $2.63 trillion in fiscal 2012.

Obama proposed a five-year freeze on discretionary expenditures excluding defense spending as part of efforts to reduce the mammoth budget deficit.

By category, Obama requested $553 billion for the Defense Department for fiscal 2012, compared with $549 billion, while seeking $118 billion for military expenses for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, down from $159 in fiscal 2011.

The budget plan is based on the administration’s forecast that the U.S. economy will expand 2.7 percent in calendar 2011 and 3.6 percent in the following year.

The unemployment rate is estimated to stand at 9.3 percent in 2011 and 8.6 percent