The US government posted a lower-than-projected budget deficit in July, the Treasury Department said Wednesday even as it reeled from the 22nd straight month of red ink.
The 165-billion-dollar deficit was lower than the 181 billion dollars chalked up in the same month in 2009, the department said.
It was also less than the 169 billion dollars projected by most economists.
The July deficit was however the highest since February, when the gap was 221 billion dollars, Treasury data showed.
July is traditionally a month of relatively high deficits fuelled by big spending.
Expenditure last month totaled 321 billion dollars, the second highest for July on record.
The latest data brought the deficit so far for the 2010 fiscal year ending September 30 to 1.169 trillion dollars, about eight per cent lower than the 10-month period in 2009.
President Barack Obama's administration has projected the deficit, which has emerged as a hot political issue, to climb to 1.555 trillion dollars in 2010.
AFP