The Treasury Department yesterday dialed back its estimates for government borrowing through the end of the year as negotiations over another large fiscal stimulus bill remain stalled, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Treasury estimated the government would borrow $617 billion from October through December, down from its $1.216 trillion estimate in early August. Senior Treasury officials said they continue to assume that Congress eventually will pass another economic-relief package with about $1 trillion in new spending — the same assumption they made in August — but that much of that borrowing would likely be pushed back to early 2021. Officials estimated net marketable borrowing from January through March would total $1.127 trillion. Meanwhile, borrowing from July through September was much less than expected — $454 billion, compared with $947 billion projected in August.
