U.S. posts $134.15 billion August budget deficit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States racked up a $134.15 billion budget deficit in August, the U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday, marking a sharp increase from a year earlier that was due mainly to calendar shifts of payments and one-time adjustments in the August 2010 period.

The cumulative deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2011, which ends on September 30, came to $1.234 trillion, down slightly from $1.260 trillion in the same period of fiscal 2010.

The White House on September 1 forecast the federal deficit at $1.316 trillion for fiscal 2011, compared to an actual fiscal 2010 deficit of $1.293 trillion.

Receipts for August rose about $5 billion to $169 billion from $164 billion a year earlier. August outlays jumped by $49 billion, to $303 billion from $255 billion in August 2010.

A major portion of the difference in outlays was due to the shift of $28 billion in August 2010 benefit payments into July of that year because that August started on a Sunday.

Without these calendar shifts and other adjustments, the Treasury said the August deficit would have increased only $15 billion instead of the $44 billion jump it reported.

Receipts for the fiscal 2011 year to date were up about 7.5 percent from a year earlier to $2.062 trillion, with nearly all of the increase coming from individual income taxes. Year-to-date corporation income tax payments were down $218 million to $14.22 billion.

The final month of the fiscal year, September, is typically a month with stronger receipts and smaller deficits due to quarterly corporate tax payments and individual payments from late filers.

The September 2010 deficit was $34.6 billion.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Neil Stempleman and Andrew Hay)