Skip to main content
May 12, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Federal government tops record monthly deficit of $737.9 billion

headshot
U.S. Capitol building

Photo: Ting Shen/Xinhua via Getty

The federal government reached a record monthly deficit of $737.9 billion in April, the Treasury Department said Tuesday.

The big picture: April is traditionally a month of budget surpluses, with tax filings rolling in, but the coronavirus pandemic instead widened the gap last month. The previous record monthly deficit was $235 billion.

  • The Congressional Budget Office estimates that spending to ward off a recession amid COVID-19's fallout will carry the deficit for the fiscal year to $3.7 trillion.
  • The deficit for this year, which began Oct. 1, has already hit $1.48 trillion.
Go deeper