WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal budgetdeficit soared to record 454.8 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2008, the Treasury Department reported Tuesday.

The deficit for the budget year that ended Sept. 30 was nearly triple the 161.5 billion dollars recorded in 2007. It was also about 3.2 percent of U.S. GDP.

"This year's budget results reflect the ongoing housing correction, and the manifestations of that in strained capital markets and slower growth," said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in a statement.

"While it will take time to work through this period, we will overcome the current challenges facing our nation," he added.

In the last budget year, the federal deficit dropped by 34.4 percent to 161.5 billion dollars, a five-year low since an imbalance of 159 billion dollars in 2002, reflecting faster growth in government revenues than spending.

The 2002 performance marked the first budgetdeficit after four consecutive years of budgetsurpluses.

The Bush administration has projected early this year that the government could eliminate the deficit completely and return to a surplus by 2012.

At present, however, many analysts predict that the budgetdeficit is likely to exceed 500 billion dollars next year as the government taps a large amount of money to deal with the most severe credit crisis in decades.
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