White House sees budget deficit shrinking to $759bn

The White House on Monday estimated that the federal government's budget deficit for the current fiscal year ending September will shrink to 759 billion U.S. dollars, 200 billion dollars less than its earlier forecast in April. The 2013 fiscal year budget deficit is now projected to be 4.7 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), down from a deficit of 10.1 percent of the GDP four years ago, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said in its mid-year review report. If the forecast proves accurate, it would be the first time that the annual federal government's budget deficit falls below the 1-trillion- dollar threshold since U.S. President Barack Obama took office. The federal government's deficit will be reduced to below 3 percent of GDP by 2017 and continue to fall to about 2 percent in 2023 under Obama's budget plan, noted the report. Meanwhile, the OMB predicted that U.S. real GDP will grow 2.0 percent this year and 3.1 percent next year, less than the 2.3 percent and 3.2 percent forecast respectively in April. "The President believes our top priority must be strengthening the true engine of economic growth -- a rising and thriving middle class. He will continue to pursue policies to accelerate the recovery, speed job creation, and expand the middle class," said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the OMB.