U.S. posts $111.4 billion August budget deficit

President Barack Obama heads back to the Oval office after speaking on the state of the U.S. economy in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, August 7, 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday posted a smaller-than-expected $111.40 billion budget deficit for August, marking a record-matching 11 straight months of deficits.

The August budget gap was well below the forecasts of analysts polled by Reuters, who predicted a $152.0 billion deficit for the month.

The deficit was slightly smaller than the year-earlier budget gap of $111.91 billion, but this was due in part to calendar shifts that held down this year's August outlays. A Treasury official said some $25 billion in August 2009 federal benefit payments were shifted to July,

With one month to go in the 2009 fiscal year, which ends September 30, the deficit stood at a record $1.378 trillion, versus a same year-ago deficit of $500.53 billion.

The White House budget office on August 25 forecast a $1.58 trillion deficit for the full 2009 fiscal year, implying that September -- in normal times a surplus month -- would produce a deficit of more than $200 billion.

A September deficit would mark a record 12 consecutive months of deficits. Only three other times has the United States racked up 11 consecutive monthly deficits -- July 1982 to May 1983; May 1986 to March 1987; and May 1991 to March 1992.

The Treasury said receipts for August fell to $145.54 billion from $157.02 billion a year earlier, marking a 7.3 percent decline. For the first 11 months of the fiscal year, receipts are down 16.2 percent to $1.885 trillion from $2.251 trillion, as the economy struggled through the worst recession since the 1930s Great Depression.

Outlays for August fell to $256.94 billion from $268.93 billion a year earlier. For the fiscal year to date, outlays, driven largely by spending on economic stimulus and financial rescue programs, are up 18.6 percent to $3.264 trillion.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by James Dalgleish)