The federal budget deficit inched up in the first quarter of the fiscal year, congressional budget estimators said Monday, as the growth in tax revenues slowed along with the softening economy.

The budget deficit is $27 billion higher after the first three months of the 2008 budget year that began Oct. 1 than it was after a comparable period for 2007, said the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The government ran a $163 billion deficit in fiscal 2007, the lowest in five years. The deficit for the first three months of the current budget year is $107 billion, as opposed to $80 billion for the first three months of fiscal 2007.

Revenues grew at a 5.6 percent rate, CBO said, about 2 percentage points less than the 2007 growth rate. At the same time, spending grew at an almost 9 percent rate.

Corporate income tax receipts are down 5 percent so far in the 2008 budget year, reversing the sharp growth experienced last year. That’s a result of the shaky economy, CBO said.

“The decline in receipts probably reflects a drop in corporate profits that has occurred over the past year,” said the CBO report.

On the spending side, defense outlays grew by about 8 percent, CBO said, while the growth of the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled spiraled upward at an almost 11 percent rate. But lower-than-expected prescription drug costs held Medicare outlays flat.

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