The U.S. economy is expanding at a 3.9 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s lates GDPNow forecast model showed, days after the U.S. government closed the 2018 fiscal year $779 billion in the red, its highest deficit in six years.

Wednesday's revision was slower than the 4 percent pace calculated by the regional Fed’s forecast program on Monday.

The Atlanta Fed said its program pared its growth estimate of government expenditures from 2.1 percent to 1.3 percent after the U.S. Department of the Treasury and its Bureau of the Fiscal Service late Monday released the Monthly Treasury Statement. The next GDPNow update is Thursday, October 25.

Republican-led tax cuts pinched revenues and expenses rose amid a growing national debt, according to data released on Monday by the Treasury Department.

New government spending also expanded the federal deficit for the 12 months through September, the first full annual budget on the watch of U.S. President Donald Trump. It was the largest deficit since 2012.

The data also showed a $119 billion budget surplus in September, which was larger than expected and a record for the month. A senior Treasury official said the monthly surplus was smaller when adjusted for calendar shifts.

Economists generally view the corporate and individual tax cuts passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress late last year and an increase in government spending agreed in early February as likely to balloon the nation’s deficit.

Trump and his fellow Republicans have touted the tax cuts as a boost to growth and jobs.

“America’s booming economy will create increased government revenues – an important step toward long-term fiscal sustainability,” Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said in a statement accompanying the data.

The deficit in the 12 months through September was $113 billion - or 17 percent - bigger than in the same period a year earlier. Adjusting for calendar effects, the gap was even larger, the Treasury official said.

President Donald Trump, faced with a budget deficit that hit a six-year high, on Wednesday called on his Cabinet secretaries to cut their budgets by 5 percent.

“I’d like you all to come back with a 5 percent cut, and I think if you do more than that, we will be very happy. There are some people sitting at the table ... that can really do substantially more than that,” Trump told his Cabinet secretaries at a meeting attended by reporters.

“Get rid of the fat, get rid of the waste,” Trump said.

Earlier on Wednesday, he told reporters the budget cuts were for next year.

Trump said he would consider exemptions, although he did not specify what those would be. He suggested he would ask Cabinet secretaries for further cuts next year.

As a candidate in the 2016 presidential election, Trump pledged to slash government spending and regulation, and many fellow Republicans going into Nov. 6 congressional elections have picked up the theme in their own campaign promises.

The Trump administration has indeed slashed regulations since taking office last year.