June deficit rises to $60 billion, receipts grow: CBO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government will report a June deficit of about $60 billion, up $17 billion from a year earlier, as calendar shifts in benefit payments masked revenue growth, the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday.

The June data will bring the federal budget gap for the first nine months of fiscal 2012 to $905 billion, CBO said, about $66 billion below the corresponding year-ago deficit with three months to go in the fiscal year ending September 30.

The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to report official budget deficit figures on Thursday.

CBO attributed the higher June deficit mostly to the shift of $36 billion in July benefit payments into June because July 1 fell on a Sunday. In addition, the government made smaller downward annual revisions to the estimated costs of student loans and other credit programs in June than it did a year earlier.

Without these shifts, the June deficit would have been would have been some $19 billion less than in June 2011, CBO said. Government receipts in June were actually $11 billion higher than a year earlier, mostly due to higher corporate tax payments, CBO said.

The nine-month deficit compared with a $971 billion deficit that occurred through the first nine months of the fiscal 2011. Revenues so far this fiscal year are up five percent, while outlays are up only one percent.

CBO, Congress' non-partisan budget scorekeeper, estimated in March that the deficit would reach $1.17 trillion after hitting $1.3 trillion in fiscal 2011. To meet that target, the government will likely need stronger receipts during the final months of the fiscal year to shrink the budget gap.

Deficits are on track to exceed $1 trillion for a fourth straight year -- a statistic that Republicans are using to hammer President Barack Obama's spending record in the run-up to the November elections.

CBO has projected a $977 billion deficit for fiscal 2013, but much will depend on how Congress deals with the expiration of tax cuts at year-end and automatic spending cuts that are due to take effect in January.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)