US EditionU.S. budget deficit edged lower in 2025 as tariffs, debt payments both saw new records
- On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the 2025 budget deficit edged lower to a $1.78 trillion shortfall, 2.2% less than fiscal 2024, as the fiscal year ended in September.
- Tariff collections this year reached $202 billion, a 142% surge from 2024, while September customs duties and $198 billion monthly surplus helped reduce the deficit.
- Record debt servicing costs included interest on the national debt totaling more than $1.2 trillion and net interest payments of $970 billion against a $38 trillion national debt.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said 'we're on our way' last week as CBO estimates the deficit-to-GDP would be below 6%, and the fiscal year ended in September with $5.2 trillion in revenue.
- In a year marked by a bruising trade war, record tariff receipts offset unprecedented interest outlays, leaving persistent fiscal pressure policymakers must manage.
34 Articles
34 Articles
Trump reduces the deficit by 4% with tariffs and his signature tax law
The jury is still out on whether Hamas will blow up the landmark ceasefire agreement that President Donald Trump‘s team negotiated to bring an end to the war in Gaza. But it’s possible that while the president was making headlines for stopping the fighting in the Middle East, he may have achieved something even more statistically improbable: reducing the deficit. Lost in the Washington drama of the Democratic Party‘s shutdown of the federal gove…
This was the first time the annual budget deficit fell since 2022, when the end of Covid-19 relief programs led to a reduction in US government spending.
U.S. runs another huge budget deficit in 2025 — and the national debt hits another record
The U.S. government ran a slightly smaller budget shortfall in the most recent year thanks to higher tariff revenue — but the national debt still rose to another record high, and shows no sign of slowing.
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