WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The federal deficit of the United States government totaled 270.5 billion dollars in the first nine months of the 2003 fiscal year, the Treasury Department reported on Friday.

　　The deficit in the past nine months of budget year 2003, which started from October 1 of last year, was more than twice the 116.3 billion dollars in the same period a year earlier.

　　The report showed that revenues of the U.S. government declined by 3.5 percent to 1.35 trillion dollars for the first nine months of the 2003 budget year compared with the same period in the last fiscal year. Most of that decline reflected lower tax payments coming into the treasury.

　　However, U.S. federal spending for the nine months totaled 1.62 trillion dollars, a 6.9 percent increase from the corresponding period in fiscal year 2002.

　　The Bush administration projected earlier this week that the U.S. budget deficit this fiscal year would increase to a record high of 455 billion dollars and swell to 475 billion dollars next year. End