CBO projects whopping $2.3 trillion budget deficit for fiscal year 2021

The $2.3 trillion figure does not factor in the potential passage of a proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

South Korean Banker carries US dollar bank notes at bank in South Korea in 2005

By Alex Nitzberg

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is projecting a whopping $2.3 trillion budget deficit in fiscal year 2021, though that deficit would be $900 billion less than the one in 2020.

The $2.3 trillion figure does not factor in the potential passage of a proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

"At 10.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the deficit in 2021 would be the second largest since 1945, exceeded only by the 14.9 percent shortfall recorded last year," according to the CBO. "Those deficits, which were already projected to be large by historical standards before the onset of the 2020–2021 coronavirus pandemic, have widened significantly as a result of the economic disruption caused by the pandemic and the enactment of legislation in response."