The U.S. government posted a $316 billion budget deficit for May, down 9%, or $31 billion, from a year earlier, as customs receipts nearly quadrupled to a record $23 billion due to President Donald Trump’s steep new import tariffs, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
Gross customs receipts soared last month from $6 billion in May 2024, as Trump’s tariffs on goods from nearly all trading partners began appearing in significant volumes at ports of entry, a Treasury official said. Fiscal year-to-date customs receipts rose nearly 60% to $86 billion.
The customs duties helped boost overall May receipts to $371 billion, up 15%, or $48 billion, from May 2024. Outlays last month reached $687 billion, an increase of $16 billion.
Both the May 2025 and May 2024 budget figures included calendar adjustments, mainly due to June benefits being paid in May since June began on a weekend in both years. Adjusting for these shifts, the May deficit would have been $219 billion, representing a 17% decline from the adjusted May 2024 deficit of $263 billion.
Interest on the public debt, one of the government’s largest and fastest-growing expenses, fell by $11 billion, or 10%, in May from a year earlier to $92 billion, following a $1 billion decline in April.
For the first eight months of the 2025 fiscal year, the deficit totaled $1.365 trillion, up $162 billion, or 14%, from $1.202 trillion in the same period last year.
Fiscal year-to-date receipts reached a record $3.482 trillion, up 6%, or $194 billion, from the previous year. Outlays for the period also hit a record $4.846 trillion, rising $356 billion, or 8%, from the year-ago period.
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