(Bloomberg) -- The White House boosted its forecasts for growth and inflation for 2024, while continuing to project outsize budget deficits for coming years.
The Office of Management and Budget now sees US gross domestic product rising 1.9% in the fourth quarter compared with the same period last year. That’s stronger than the 1.3% it forecast in March. The consumer price index is now seen rising 3.1% on the same basis, up from 2.5%.
The Biden administration released the estimates Friday in the OMB’s so-called mid-session review of the budget.
This fiscal year’s deficit is seen at $1.87 trillion, little different than the $1.86 trillion projected in March. Next year’s gap is forecast at $1.88 trillion, up from the $1.78 trillion anticipated in March. As a share of GDP, the gap for fiscal 2024, which runs through September, is at 6.6%, ticking down to 6.3% next year.
At that percentage of GDP, the deficit would continue to be among the highest ratios in US history outside times of war, the financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. Economists have raised concerns about damage to the economy if lawmakers fail to rein in the growth in debt.
Last month, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected the US deficit would reach $1.92 trillion in 2024.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
