The U.S. budget deficit rose by US$217 billion to $1.99 trillion in the 2026 fiscal year, fuelled in part by tariff refunds and record spending to service the nation’s more-than $40 trillion in debt, marking the largest budget shortfall in five years, Treasury Department figures reported on Friday showed. The results for the year ended September 30, the first full budget year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, compared to a $1.78 trillion deficit in fiscal 2025. It was the largest shortfall since fiscal 2021’s $2.77 trillion budget gap, then fueled by COVID-19 pandemic relief spending, and is the third- largest annual deficit ever. Total receipts for fiscal 2026 were a record $5.40 trillion, up $169 billion, or three per cent, from the $5.24 trillion in fiscal 2025. Fiscal 2026 outlays also were a record at $7.40 trillion, up $386 billion, or six per cent, from the $7.01 trillion in the prior fiscal year. Debt-service outlays totaled a record $1.36 trillion, climbing by $144 billion, or 12 per cent, a spending category now eclipsed only by Social Security and the combined outlays for Medicare and Medicaid. Total U.S. debt breached the $40 trillion milestone about two months ago. Another driver of the widening shortfall was a $22 billion drop in net tariff receipts following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this year negating a large portion of the tariffs Trump had imposed during his first year in office. That triggered $145 billion of tariff refunds over this year, resulting in an 11 per cent decline in net tariff income to about $173 billion. A U.S. Treasury official said the department calculated an estimated deficit-to-GDP ratio of 6.2 per cent for fiscal 2026, but declined to say what GDP estimate was used. This figure compares to an actual 5.8 per cent deficit-to-GDP ratio for fiscal 2025. For the 2026 fiscal year’s final month of September, the Treasury reported a deficit of $27 billion versus a $198 billion surplus a year earlier. (Reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
