U.S. January budget surplus $3 billion: Treasury

The U.S. government ran a budget surplus of $3 billion in January, the Treasury Department reported on Tuesday, the first monthly surplus since September 2012.

The surplus was driven by a 16% increase in revenue compared to January 2012, including from the expiration of a temporary payroll-tax cut at the end of 2012. The payroll-tax cut expiration represented about $9 billion of an overall $13 billion in revenue from individual withheld taxes.

A year ago in January, the government recorded a deficit of $27 billion. There hasn’t been a monthly surplus in January since 2008.

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