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Public Administration vocabulary · Public Budgets and Finance

Budget deficit

Meaning in public administration, with examples

nounCommon term

In public administration, budget deficit means: The amount by which a government's spending is greater than its revenue in a given year; the opposite is a budget surplus.

In Turkish: bütçe açığı

How it is used

Usually expressed as a share of GDP: a deficit of 3 percent of GDP. Governments run, reduce, cut or finance a deficit, often by borrowing. Fiscal rules in the EU and elsewhere set limits on deficits.

Example sentences

  1. The budget deficit narrowed last year as tax revenue grew faster than expected.

  2. To reduce the budget deficit, the government delayed several large projects.

Common collocations

  • reduce the budget deficit
  • run a budget deficit
  • budget surplus
  • deficit target
  • budgetA plan showing how much money a government or public body expects to receive and how it will spend that money over a set period, usually one year.
  • revenueMoney that a government or public body receives, mainly from taxes but also from fees, charges, fines and the sale of assets.
  • public spendingMoney spent by the government and other public bodies on services, salaries, investment and benefits; formal texts often call it public expenditure.
  • fiscal yearThe twelve-month period that a government or organization uses for its budget and accounts, which may or may not match the calendar year.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Public Budgets and Finance

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