
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, September 23, 1993                   TAG: 9309230069
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DEFICIT HEADED FOR A FALL

The annual federal budget deficit is headed for its first drop in four years as the government recorded $23.2 billion in red ink during August, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier.

The deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 1993, which ends Sept. 30, totaled $263.4 billion, down 10.9 percent from the same period of fiscal 1992, the Treasury said Wednesday.

For the year so far, growth in receipts - $1.03 trillion, up 5.6 percent - has outpaced growth in spending - $1.29 trillion, up 1.7 percent.

The Clinton administration is projecting a deficit of $285.3 billion this year, down from last year's record $290.2 billion.

But many private economists believe the improvement will be even better. They predict a surplus in September, thanks to quarterly tax payments.

That could bring the deficit in at less than $260 billion for the first time since 1990. And it would be the first drop since 1989.

The improvement results from increased tax collections generated by the moderate economic recovery, military spending cuts, low interest rates on the national debt and suspension of the savings and loan cleanup because the law authorizing it expired.

The S&L cleanup agency, the Resolution Trust Corp., has actually earned $19.1 billion so far this fiscal year by selling assets from failed S&Ls.

Individual income tax receipts totaled $39.4 billion in August and $454.6 billion for the year so far, up 8.1 percent from 1992. Corporate income tax payments totaled $1.9 billion for the month and $93 billion for the year so far, up 15.7 percent.

Military expenditures were $20.4 billion in August and $254.9 billion so far this year, down 2.6 percent.

Interest on the $4.3 trillion national debt was $19 billion last month and $275.5 billion for the year so far, up 0.2 percent.

Social Security spending was $25.4 billion in August and $272.8 billion for the year, up 6 percent.

by CNB