WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The federal government

posted a $129 billion budget deficit for January, up sharply

from an unusually low $22 billion deficit in January 2024 due to

calendar shifts in benefit payments as well as outlays for

Social Security, Medicare, interest and other items that grew

faster than receipts, the U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday.

The Treasury said that January receipts came in at $513

billion, up 8% or $36 billion from a year earlier. January

outlays were $642 billion, up 29% or $143 billion from a year

earlier.

Excluding the calendar shifts, the adjusted deficit increase

for January would have been $21 billion, the Treasury said.

But the year-to-date deficit came in at a record $840

billion for the first four months of fiscal 2025, which started

on October 1.

That was up 58% or $308 billion from a year earlier, an

increase that a Treasury official said was due partly to the

prior year tax receipts being inflated by some $85 billion

deferred tax payments from the previous fiscal year.

Year-to-date receipts came in at $1.596 trillion, up 1% or

$11 billion from the same period a year earlier, while outlays

totaled $2.436 trillion, up 15% or $319 billion from the prior

year period. Both outlays and receipts for the first four months

of fiscal 2025 also were records for the period, the Treasury

official said.