Deficit

Deficit may have one of the following meanings, depending the context of the term:

1. an insufficiency in an account or number, whether as the result of defaults and mis-appropriations or of mistakes or shrinkage in value (e.g., a deficit in the earnings and profits account).

2. the excess of the U.S. government's spendings over its revenues. Many economists believe that federal deficits lead to inflation.

The result of the government taking in less money than it spends.