As Budget Talks Open, U.S. Says Deficit Fell

By JACKIE CALMES and JONATHAN WEISMAN, NYT

WASHINGTON — Federal spending cuts, higher taxes for the wealthy and a slowly recovering economy combined to reduce the budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended to a lower-than-expected $680 billion, nearly a third lower than the Obama administration projected six months ago.

The final figure for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, was a significant turnaround for the nation’s books after four straight post-recession years in which annual deficits exceeded $1 trillion each.

According to the Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department, which released the numbers on Wednesday afternoon, the $680 billion shortfall is equivalent to 4.1 percent of the economy’s total output. That is down from a peak of 10.1 percent of the gross domestic product in 2009, months into President Obama’s first year, and at the height of the recession and financial crisis.

The deficit is $409 billion below last year’s shortfall, which was just over $1 trillion, and $293 billion less than Mr. Obama projected for 2013 when he released his budget in April.

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