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DEFICIT IN REAGAN BUDGET AT RECORD $110.7 BILLION

DEFICIT IN REAGAN BUDGET AT RECORD $110.7 BILLION
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October 27, 1982, Section D, Page 1Buy Reprints
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The Administration reported today that the Government ran up a record budget deficit of $110.7 billion in the 1982 fiscal year, the first full fiscal year under Ronald Reagan's Presidency.

The huge deficit for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, which had to be financed by Treasury borrowing, was far above the previous record, $66.4 billion, which was set in the 1976 fiscal year by Gerald R. Ford's Administration.

However, after adjusting for inflation by comparing the deficit to the size of the economy as measured by the gross national product, the 1982 result was smaller - 3.6 percent of G.N.P. versus 4 percent in 1976.

The 1982 deficit, reported today by the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget, was in line with expectations. But it was regarded as noteworthy for two reasons: It was far more than either Mr. Reagan or his predecessor, Jimmy Carter, had projected, and it is a lot less than the deficits projected for the 1983 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, and for later years.

Revising '83 Deficit Outlook

The Congressional Budget Office has projected the 1983 deficit at $155 billion. As for the 1984 fiscal year, which will start next Oct. 1, James R. Capra, economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said that he has revised his July projection of $185 billion to ''$200 billion or more'' because of deterioration of the economy.

The report's main elements were as follows:

- Revenues: $617.8 billion, up 3.1 percent from fiscal 1981 and roughly $33 billion below the estimate used by Mr. Reagan in his first budget statement, in February 1981, a month after taking office.

- Outlays: $728.4 billion, up 10.8 percent from 1981 and $71 billion higher than the initial estimate.

- Deficit: $110.7 billion, up 91.2 percent from the 1981 deficit of $57.9 billion and more than double the initial estimate of $45 billion.

The Treasury also reported that it had borrowed $17.3 billion to finance programs that Congress has removed from standard budget accounting, the so called off-budget activities. The 1982 off-budget total was below the $21 billion for 1981 and would have been about $3 billion lower still had not Congress shifted the strategic petroleum reserve to off-budget status for 1982.

The budget report drew critical comment from some quarters. Representative James R. Jones of Oklahoma, the Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, said, ''These deficits don't need to happen. They result from the Administration's policies, which are not conservative but radical.'' Mr. Jones was referring to the three-year tax cut enacted in 1981 and the President's plans for a rapid buildup of military spending. Conservative Group Is Critical

A conservative group, the National Taxpayers Union, said that after allowing for inflation, Federal spending rose by 4.2 percent in 1982, as against 3.5 percent in 1981 and exactly in line with an average for the past four years of 4.2 percent. ''This shows that the Reagan Administration has made no progress at all in reducing the rate of Federal spending growth,'' the statement said.

Edwin L. Dale Jr., the budget office spokesman, said ''real growth has some validity,'' but ''the crucial thing is to reduce spending in current dollars. That's what determines the magnitude of the borrowing.''

Mr. Dale said that annual increases in total outlays have been decreasing, from 17.5 percent in 1980 to 14 percent in 1981 and 10.8 percent in 1982. ''The big payoff'' from 1981-82 spending cuts ''comes in 1983,'' Mr. Dale said, when the increase in spending will narrow to 6 or 7 percent.

The 1982 tax revenues fell far below expectations because the economy was weaker and also because inflation - which drives up wages and corporate profits - slowed rapidly.

As invariably occurs on the spending side, there were many factors at work, including the timing and content of many Congressional actions. Driving spending up were interest rates that held higher than expected and a combination of bumper harvests and falling grains prices that lifted Federal support payments.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section D, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: DEFICIT IN REAGAN BUDGET AT RECORD $110.7 BILLION. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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