In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit for the first 11 months of this budget year is 9.9% less than the imbalance during the same period last year.

For the entire budget year, which ends Sept. 30, the Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a deficit of $3 trillion, which would be just below the record deficit of $3.13 trillion set last year.

Last year’s deficit was more than double the previous record of $1.4 trillion set in 2009 during the Obama administration, when the government was spending heavily to combat the deep recession after the 2008 financial crisis.

For the first 11 months of this budget year, government revenues totaled $3.39 trillion. That marks a healthy increase of 17.7% from last year, fueled by the economic rebound from the COVID-induced recession that allowed millions of people to go back to work, boosting individual incomes and corporate profits.

Government spending was up a slower 4% to $6.21 trillion. The outlays for both this year and last reflect the trillions of dollars spent to keep the economy from falling into a prolonged recession by providing individual support payments, enhanced unemployment benefits and billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses.

For August, the deficit totaled $170.6 billion, down 14.7% from August 2020 when the deficit hit $200 billion. The difference resulted from the winding down of a number of relief programs introduced since March 2020.

The construction of a $65 million tower befitting high-end tenancy in the capital city, is nine months behind schedule, but not behind budget.

Fijian Holdings Limited’s acting group chief executive officer, Abilash Ram, made the comment about the Fijian Holdings Commercial Tower, which is under construction at Gorrie Street.

His comments follow the revelation that steel for construction tower was expected to arrive later this month. “We have a completion date established for March 2022,” Mr Ram said.

By as early as 2020 to the first quarter of 2021, Fijian Holdings Limited is expected to launch its three dimension designs artist’s impression with potential tenants. “The issue is actually the market at the moment,” Mr Ram said. “Still, we got a lot of interest. “

Tenancy at the tower is directed at diplomatic missions, Mr Ram said. The tower will have 18 floors, two of which will be allocated for parking. “Appropriate consultants were involved and traffic impact study to get approval from the Fiji Roads Authority,” Mr Ram said.

The failure to bring Covid-19 under control is changing expectations of a quick economic recovery.