RealTime Data Analysis Exercise Consider the data below for
Real-Time Data Analysis Exercise Consider the data below for federal budget receipts, federal budget spending, and GDP in the U.S. Calculate the federal budget surplus or deficit as a percentage of GDP for each year. (Enter your responses rounded to two decimal places and include a minus sign for a deficit) Federal Federal Budget Government Receipts Spending Real GDP (billions of dollars per (billions of dollars (billions of dollars per year, Federal Surplus or Deficit Year 2012 2013 2014 2015 per y in constant 2005 dollars) as a percentage of GDP 2,450 2,775 3,021 3,250 3,537 3,455 3,506 3,688 16,155 16,692 17,428 18.121 Real-time data provided by Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis.
Solution
Working notes:
(1) Budget Balance = Receipts - Spending
(2) When Receipts > Spending, Budget balance is a surplus (positive), and when Receipts < Spending, budget balance is a deficit (negative).
(3) Surplus/Deficit as % of GDP = Budget balance / Real GDP.
Therefore:
| Year | Receipt ($B) | Spending ($B) | Real GDP ($B) | Budget Balance ($B) | Federal Surplus/Deficit as % of GDP (%) |
| (A) | (B) | (C) | (D)=(A)-(B) | [(D)/(C)]x100 | |
| 2012 | 2,450 | 3,537 | 16,155 | -1,087 | -6.73% |
| 2013 | 2,775 | 3,455 | 16,692 | -680 | -4.07% |
| 2014 | 3,021 | 3,506 | 17,428 | -485 | -2.78% |
| 2015 | 3,250 | 3,688 | 18,121 | -438 | -2.42% |
