(Washington) The public deficit of the United States has still dug between October and June, compared to the same period a year earlier, despite an increase in income from customs duties, according to documents published Friday by the Treasury Department.
In the first nine months of the US fiscal year, the deficit increased by $ 64 billion, reaching $ 1400 billion, compared to just over 1300 billion a year earlier, an increase of 6 %, according to Treasury data.
The increase in spending, in particular under the effect of health programs for retirees and Americans with low incomes, Medicare and Medicaid, partly explains this digging of the deficit.
Another element is the increase in the cost of American debt, the government having paid more than $ 920 billion in interest, a record.
On the revenue side, income from customs increased from $ 61 billion a year ago to $ 113 billion in the first three quarters of the current tax year.
An increase which is explained by the sharp increase in customs duties applied to products entering the United States, spent on average of 2.5 % effective rate at the end of 2024 to 17.6 % at 1is July 2025, according to data from the LAB budget of the University of Yale.
At a Council of Ministers this week, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimated that customs duties should have brought in additional $ 300 billion by the end of the year.
Overall, revenues from the American federal state increased by 7 %, thanks to better tax revenues caused in particular by an increase in employment and wages.
But the corporate tax has decreased, companies preferring to wait to know the conditions provided for by the finance law passed in early July by the Congress.
