US posts August budget surplus after student loan cost reversal

<img src="https://www.reuters.com/resizer/_trUTgd5Bra87BW259am6fqc-GU=/1920x0/filters:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/BUXX3PY7NFPRDPJTB575SC6JA4.jpg" alt="The Treasury Department is pictured in Washington">The Treasury Department is pictured in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2021. REUTERS/Al Drago       The U.S. government posted a rare August surplus of $89 billion due to a $319 billion reversal of costs from President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan after the Supreme Court struck down the program in June, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.   The August surplus - the first for that month since 1955 - compares to a year-earlier deficit of $220 billion. Receipts last month totaled $283 billion, down 7% or $21 billion from a year earlier, while outlays came to $194 billion after the student loan reversal, down 63% or $329 billion.   The Biden administration last year had taken an https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-cuts-2023-us-deficit-forecast-after-student-loan-forgiveness-struck-2023-07-28/
 of a $1.543 trillion deficit for the full fiscal year, marking the return of rising U.S. deficits after declines during Biden's first two years as president.   Fiscal year-to-date receipts totaled $3.972 trillion, down 10% or $434 billion from a year earlier, primarily due to lower non-withheld individual income tax receipts, higher tax refunds as the Internal Revenue Service churned through a huge backlog of unprocessed paper tax returns, and far lower Federal Reserve earnings due to higher interest rates.   Year-to-date outlays totaled $5.496 trillion, up 3% or $142 billion, partly reflecting the student loan reversal. The Treasury's net interest cost for the period hit a record $808 billion, up 19% or $130 billion from a year earlier.   However, a Treasury official said the nominal interest cost was not a record as a share of Gross Domestic Product. It was higher as a share of GDP throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he added.   The weighted average interest rate on U.S. Treasury debt was 2.92% in August, up from 1.97% in August 2022.    Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-treasury-posts-august-surplus-after-student-loan-cost-reversal-2023-09-13/