U.S. Feb. budget deficit $231.7 billion: Treasury (by Greg Robb)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. government ran a $231.7 billion budget deficit in February, the Treasury Department reported Monday. This is up substantially from the deficit of $222.5 billion in the same month one year ago. Receipts were $103.4 billion in February, the Treasury said, about $7 billion lower than receipts in February 2011. Outlays were $335.1 billion. This is $2 billion higher compared with a year earlier. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the federal deficit will narrow slightly to $1.08 trillion from last year's $1.29 trillion, but remain above $1 trillion for the fourth straight year. For the first five months of the fiscal year, the government incurred a budget deficit of $580.8 billion, $60 billion less than the deficit recorded during the same period last year.