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A view from the US Treasury building in Washington, DC, USA on December 30, 2024. In early December, the US Treasury Department was subjected to a cyber attack by a state-sponsored Chinese actor.
Chelyal Gunesh | Anatolia Getty Images
In December, the federal budget fell even further, sending the first fiscal quarter deficit up nearly 40% from a year earlier.
According to a report from the Treasury Department on Tuesday, the deficit was $86.7 billion in the last calendar month of 2024, which actually represents a 33% decrease from the same period last year. However, that brought the three-month fiscal year total to $710.9 billion, up about $200 billion year-over-year, or 39.4%.
Rising financing costs, along with continued spending increases and declining tax revenues, have driven up deficits, pushing the national debt past the $36 trillion mark.
While short-term Treasury yields have remained fairly steady over the past month, rates at the far end of the duration curve have risen. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond reached nearly 4.8%, or about 0.4 percentage point higher than a month ago.
At the same time, expenses in the first quarter were 11% higher than a year ago, and revenues decreased by 2%.
In fiscal year 2025, interest on the national debt was $308.4 billion, up 7% from last year. Full-year financing spending is projected to exceed $1.2 trillion, surpassing the 2024 record.
This year, the government spent more on interest payments than on any other category except Social Security, Defense and Health.
