US federal budget deficit widens in July

The US federal government budget deficit widened in July, as some of government payments were shifted to the month from August, the US treasury department said.

The budget deficit stood at $149.2 billion in July, compared with a deficit of $94.6 billion last July, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

In the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2015, which starts at last October and ends at September this year, the combined budget deficit stood at $465.5 billion, 1.1 percent higher than a year ago.

The Congressional Budget Office last week predicted that the budget deficit in the 2015 fiscal year will total $425 billion, down more than 12 percent from its earlier forecast of $486 billion.