The federal government ran a $293 billion for the first three months of fiscal year 2013, the Congressional Budget Office estimates.
The total is $29 billion less than the previous fiscal year and, without shifts in the timing of certain payments, the deficit would have been about $60 billion lower this year than fiscal year 2012, the CBO said.
The CBO said total receipts were up 11 percent in the first quarter, up to $616 billion or roughly $60 billion more than the same period last year.
By CBO’s estimates, federal outlays, which total $909 billion, would have been about the same in the first quarter of 2013 as they were during that period in 2012, but there were shifts in the timing of certain payments because some scheduled payment dates fell on a weekend or holiday.
