Washington, Aug 13 : The US government recorded a budget deficit of $97.6 billion in July, US treasury department figures have revealed.

The government raked in a revenue of $200 billion last month, and reported outlays of $297.6 billion in the same month, Xinhua reported Tuesday.

The budget gap, for the first 10 months of the current fiscal year that began last October, totalled about $607 billion, a narrowing from the $974 billion deficit witnessed in the same period of 2011-12 fiscal year.

Due to the ballooning entitlement spending, waning government revenue, and massive spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US government's budget deficit has surpassed $1 trillion for four consecutive years. (IANS)