Fiscal '92 Budget Gap Now Is Estimated at $290 Billion, Smaller Than Expected
WASHINGTON -- Although the economy has long been in the doldrums, more money has been finding its way into the government's coffers than expected.</br></br>The result is that when the figures are all counted, the deficit for fiscal 1992, which ended Sept. 30, should turn out to be about $290 billion. While that would be a record, exceeding the previous year's $269 billion deficit, it's far below the $368 billion that the Congressional Budget Office originally had forecast. The White House budget office once had assumed that the gap would be even greater: a mammoth $399 billion.</br></br>Still, analysts say the surprising improvement for 1992 could prove to be short-lived, and they expect enormous deficits for the foreseeable future.</br></br>Last summer, the CBO and White House pared their deficit projections to $314 billion and $334 billion, respectively -- mostly to reflect delays in deposit-insurance spending for the savings-and-loan cleanup.</br></br>But in the short time since those revisions were made, the government has taken in more revenue than it thought it would, while spending has been somewhat less. The precise reason is unclear. Yet government budget officials say that, among other things, a surprising number of estimated tax payments have been rolling in.