The federal government ran a deficit of more than $57 billion over the first five months of its fiscal year, about $114 billion less than the treasury pumped out during the same stretch one year earlier.

The Finance Department’s regular fiscal monitor says the budgetary deficit between April and August was $57.2 billion, down from the $170.5 billion recorded over the same months in 2020 when COVID-19 first struck.

Friday’s report says the deficit now reflects current economic challenges caused by COVID-19, including ongoing public health restrictions.

Program spending, excluding net actuarial losses, between April and August was $190 billion, a decline of about $64.1 billion, or 25.2 per cent drop, from the $254.1 billion in the same period one year earlier.

The fiscal monitor says the decline largely reflects lower amounts paid in emergency benefits to individuals and businesses…read more.

U.S. economic growth slowed more than expected in the third quarter to the softest pace of the pandemic recovery period as snarled supply chains and a surge in COVID-19 cases throttled spending and investment.

Gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced, grew at a 2.0% annualized pace in the third quarter, according to the department’s first estimate released Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a 2.8% reading.

That marked the slowest GDP gain since the 31.2% plunge in the second quarter of 2020, which encompassed the period during which Covid-19 morphed into a global pandemic that resulted in a severe economic shutdown that sent tens of millions to the unemployment lines and put a chokehold on activity across the country…read more.