CBO discusses its preliminary projections of key economic variables and its preliminary assessments of federal budget deficits and debt through 2021. The amounts include the effects of legislation enacted in response to the pandemic.
April 2020
View CBO’s budget infographics to see how much the federal government spent and took in during fiscal year 2019, as well as broader trends in the budget over the past few decades.
The federal budget deficit was $741 billion in the first half of fiscal year 2020, CBO estimates, $50 billion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last year.
Each quarter, CBO provides information about its work in progress. As of March 31, the agency was working on 159 cost estimates for legislation in addition to 25 analytic products.
As a result of the continued disruption of commerce stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, CBO expects the unemployment rate to exceed 10 percent as gross domestic product declines during the second quarter.
Using FCRA procedures, CBO estimates that new loans and loan guarantees issued in 2021 would result in savings of $41.8 billion. But using fair-value estimates, CBO projects that they would have a lifetime cost of $46.8 billion.