WASHINGTON >> The federal budget deficit in December totaled $13.5 billion, helping to push the deficit for the first three months of this budget year up 41.8 percent from the same period the previous year.

The Treasury Department says that the budget total from October through December totals $318.9 billion, up from a deficit of $225 billion for the same three months in the previous year.

So far this budget year, tax revenue is up a tiny 0.2 percent, reflecting the impacts of the tax cuts passed in 2017. Spending is up 9.6 percent.

The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that this year’s deficit will jump to $897 billion, up 15.1 percent from last year’s deficit of $779 billion. Last year’s deficit had been the largest since 2012.