The federal government ran a $172 billion deficit in November, the Treasury Department announced on Wednesday.
The number was higher than in October when the government ran a $120 billion deficit and was 25 percent higher than the same period last year.
November’s deficit, the Treasury Department said, was pushed higher by a calendar quirk that pulled approximately $33 billion in benefits payments into November from December.
The government finished fiscal year 2012 with a $1.1 trillion deficit and is in line to top $1 trillion again for the fifth-straight year based on the first two months of the current fiscal year.
