US federal budget deficit increases in March

The U.S. federal government budget deficit went up last month, and the deficit in the first six months of the fiscal year also shot up, the U.S. Treasury Department said Monday.

The budget deficit stood at 52.9 billion U.S. dollars in March, compared with a deficit of 36.9 billion U.S. dollars a year ago.

In the first six months of the fiscal year 2015, which started October last year, the combined budget deficit stood at 439.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 6.3 percent from the same period a year ago.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that the budget deficit in the 2015 fiscal year will total 486 billion U.S. dollars, and the deficit as a share of gross domestic product in this fiscal year will be lowest since 2007.