Treasury Final Figures: Fiscal 2026 Deficit Hits $1.99 Trillion, Largest in Five Years
Washington — The U.S. budget deficit rose by $217 billion to $1.99 trillion in fiscal 2026, Treasury Department final figures released on October 16 showed, marking the largest shortfall in five years and the third-largest annual deficit on record. The fiscal year ended September 30 was the first full budget year of President Donald Trump's second term; the fiscal 2025 deficit was $1.78 trillion, and the gap was last larger in fiscal 2021, at $2.77 trillion.
Receipts and outlays both set records: total receipts were $5.40 trillion, up 3% from $5.24 trillion, while outlays were $7.40 trillion, up 6% from $7.01 trillion. Debt-service outlays totaled a record $1.36 trillion, up $144 billion or 12%, a category now eclipsed only by Social Security and the combined outlays for Medicare and Medicaid; total U.S. debt breached the $40 trillion milestone about two months ago. Defense spending rose 6% to $917 billion.
Another driver was a drop in tariff income: a Supreme Court ruling this year negated a large portion of the tariffs imposed during Trump's first year, triggering $145 billion of tariff refunds and an 11% decline in net tariff income to about $173 billion. A Treasury official put the estimated deficit-to-GDP ratio at 6.2% for fiscal 2026, versus an actual 5.8% in fiscal 2025. For September, the final month of the fiscal year, the Treasury reported a deficit of $27 billion, versus a $198 billion surplus a year earlier. (GSM, via Reuters)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国财政部大楼航拍（2026年10月摄，G. Edward Johnson 摄，CC BY 4.0，维基共享资源）
