The federal government ran a $53 billion deficit in May, the Treasury reported Friday afternoon.
May’s shortfall was down from $84 billion a year ago. While the government took in $225 billion in revenues, it spent $277 billion.
For the fiscal year so far, the U.S. is running a $407 billion deficit, up from $367 billion at the same point last year.
The deficit is expected to eclipse $500 billion for the full year, after falling to a post-crisis low of $439 billion for fiscal year 2015.
A larger shortfall would reverse four years of falling federal deficits. The deficit topped out in 2011 at $1.3 trillion, at a time when tax revenues were held down by the weak economy, and federal spending jumped.
The Congressional Budget Office, Congress’ in-house budget agency, projects that the deficit will resume climbing this year and again reach the $1 trillion mark by 2022, generating a rising debt.
