US budget deficit at $1 trillion 美国预算赤字一百亿

The US budget deficit¹ has moved above $1 trillion (£616bn) for the first time - with three months of the financial year remaining, official data show.

官方数据显示，美国预算赤字已经第一次达到一百亿美元----距离本财政季度还有三个月时间。

Unemployment benefits and falling tax incomes have widened the deficit

The government stepped up spending to counter the recession, and the bailout（跳伞） of financial institutions has taken a huge chunk² out of government finances.

Falling tax revenues（税收） and unemployment benefit spending have also contributed.

The figure compares with $455bn for the whole 2007/8 financial year, but the 2008/9 deficit was expected to soar（往上飞舞，高耸）.

A budget deficit can impede³（妨碍，阻止） on spending on programmes such as health and education.

Increased anxiety

Congress has already approved a $700bn financial bailout and a $787bn economic stimulus⁴ package to try and jump-start a recovery.

And last week a senior US Democrat⁵ said that legislators must be willing to consider the possibility of a second economic stimulus package.

But even before the global economic slowdown, the US had moved into deficit - driven largely by tax cuts and the cost of the Iraq war.

The Treasury⁶ figures showed that the budget deficit so far in the financial year, which runs to 30 September, was $1.086 trillion - a widening of $94.316bn from the month before.

And the situation has led to increasing anxiety among the foreign buyers of US debt, including China.

It may force the Treasury to pay higher interest rates to those who buy its debt, to make it a more attractive long-term prospect⁷, observers say.

"These are mind boggling（犹豫，踌躇） numbers," said Sung Won Sohn, an economist⁸ at the Smith School of Business at California State University.

"Our foreign investors⁹ from China and elsewhere are starting to have concerns about not only the value of the dollar but how safe their investments will be in the long run."