Gillian Tett (“Why impoundment should worry investors”, Opinion, March 1) added valuable insights to the discussion of the US public finances, but understated the problem. She said that the debt “is already $36tn — and rising — and the annual deficit is well over $1tn”. In fact, the deficit would be better characterised as “well over $2tn”.
The latest data shows that the federal deficit in January was $128.6bn, which completed a 12-month period when the deficit totalled $2.135tn. The US fiscal year runs from October to September. In the first four months of the current fiscal year the deficit was $839.6bn, up by over $300bn on the previous fiscal year.
As the deficit reached $1.832tn in the year to September 2024, it is clear that the right ballpark figure to have in mind for the annual imbalance in the US’s public finances is $2tn, not $1tn.
Professor Tim Congdon
Chairman, Institute of International Monetary Research,
University of Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, UK
