The US Treasury Department reported that the federal budget surplus in January 2017 declined by 7.1% to $51.257 billion from a surplus of $55.163 billion in January 2016.

The US Treasury brought in total receipts of $344.069 billion, up 9.7% from January 2016. Meanwhile, outlays soared by 13.3% to $293 billion.

The fiscal 2017 year-to-date deficit stood at $156.939 billion, down 2.2% from $160.388 billion in the same period of fiscal 2016.

Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, the budget receipts grew by 0.5% to $1.085 trillion, while outlays increased by 0.2% to $1.242 trillion.

In January, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the FY2017 federal budget will show a deficit of $559 billion, or 2.9% of GDP, while the previous outlook suggested a budget deficit of $594 billion.

In fiscal 2016, US budget deficit soared by a staggering 34%, for the first time in five years, to $587.326 billion. Thus, the budget deficit increased to 3.2% of GDP compared with a deficit of 2.4% of GDP a year before. This was the first increase in the deficit as a share of GDP since 2009.

The United States last had a budget surplus during fiscal year 2001. In 2009, the highest deficit in the country's history of $1.41 trillion, or 9.8% of GDP, was marked. The average US budget deficit over the past 50 years has been 2.8% of GDP.