The US government budget deficit in 2014 will come down to $583 billion, a drop of $100 billion over the previous year. This is the sharpest drop during the period of Obama administration, the White House said on Friday. ‘Under the president’s leadership, the deficit has been cut by more than half as a share of the economy, representing the most rapid sustained deficit reduction since World War II, and it continues to fall,’ Brian Deese, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote on the White House blog on Friday.
Deese said that the Mid-Session Review (MSR) projects a $583 billion deficit in 2014, which is 3.4 per cent of GDP, nearly $100 billion less than last year’s deficit and $66 billion lower than the Budget projection. ‘Looking ahead, the MSR estimates that deficits under the president’s proposed policies will fall to below 3 per cent of GDP in 2015 and reach 2.1 per cent of GDP by 2024,’ he said. ‘
At the same time, our economy is moving forward and businesses are creating jobs,’ Deese said, adding that nearly 10 million new jobs have been created over the past 52 months.
The US housing market is rebounding, with rising home prices lifting 4 million borrowers above water on their mortgages in 2013 alone, he said adding that Americans are purchasing vehicles at a faster pace over the last two quarters than in any quarter since the first half of 2007.