The U.S. posted a $90.53 billion budget deficit in August, Treasury Department data showed Monday.

The August deficit was slightly below the $95 billion expected by economists polled by Reuters, and smaller than the $103.56 billion  gap a year earlier.

The department said the gap for fiscal 2010, which ends at the end of this month, was $1.260 trillion, smaller than the $1.371 trillion posted for the first 11 months of fiscal 2009.