WASHINGTON - THE US government on Friday posted a smaller-than-expected US$111.40 billion (S$160.4 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 US$152.0 billion deficit for the month.

The deficit was slightly smaller than the year-earlier budget gap of US$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 US$25 billion in August 2009 federal benefit payments were shifted to July, With one month to go in the 2009 fiscal year, which ends Sept 30, the deficit stood at a record US$1.378 trillion, versus a same year-ago deficit of US$500.53 billion.

The White House budget office on Aug 25 forecast a US$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 US$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 US$145.54 billion from US$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 per cent to US$1.885 trillion from US$2.251 trillion, as the economy struggled through the worst recession since the 1930s Great Depression.

Outlays for August fell to US$256.94 billion from US$268.93 billion a year earlier. For the fiscal year to date, outlays, driven largely by spending on economic stimulus and financial rescue programmes, are up 18.6 per cent to US$3.264 trillion. -- THOMSON REUTERS