The Nation - News from Jan. 27, 1988

The federal government ran up a $23.9-billion budget deficit in December as the amount of red ink in the first three months of the 1988 fiscal year soared by almost 25% above the year-earlier level, the Treasury Department reported. The department said that the first-quarter deficit for the current budget year, which began Oct. 1, totaled $80.4 billion, an increase of $15.8 billion over the same period in fiscal 1987. The report said revenues totaled $85.5 billion in December while spending totaled $109.4 billion. The December imbalance compared with a $12.2-billion deficit in the same month a year earlier.