CBO: May deficit down from April, but still huge amid pandemic

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal deficit in May was $424 billion, substantially lower than April’s $738 billion but still the second-largest monthly shortfall since records have been kept.

The deficit for the first eight months of fiscal 2020 was about $1.9 trillion, the CBO said, or $1.2 trillion greater than during the same period the previous year.

The Treasury Department will release official figures later this week, but the CBO’s preliminary estimates are typically very close to the official numbers. The budget office’s deficit estimate for April was within $1 billion of the final Treasury figures, for