The phrase "a modest deficit" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing financial matters, budgets, or economic conditions where the deficit is not considered severe.
Example: "The company reported a modest deficit this quarter, but management remains optimistic about future growth."
Alternatives: "a slight shortfall" or "a small deficit."
For Mr. Makin, a modest deficit -- say $200 billion a year -- is insignificant in a nearly $10 trillion economy and can be carried indefinitely.
This is not the time to worry about a declining surplus or even a modest deficit.
Seen in this light, it had a modest deficit in 2008.
For a growing economy, a modest deficit over the course of the cycle is "prudent", provided that longer-term liabilities such as pensions are taken into account.
The sixth-ranked Panthers were faster, stronger, smarter and hungrier in recovering from a modest deficit to squash fifth-ranked Notre Dame at the new Petersen Events Center.
The key issue is not whether a country runs a modest deficit, but what it is actually spending the money on.
On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the Republicans' no good very bad Affordable Care Act repeal bill would result in 22 million more uninsured Americans by 2026, $772 billion cut from Medicaid, and a relatively modest deficit reduction of $321 billion over a decade.
Although both major groups of MGE-derived interneurons express Satb1, our analysis of Satb1-deficient mice revealed a relatively modest deficit of PV+ inhibitory neurons.
This backfired, badly, when the centrist Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau, promised instead to goose the economy with a few years of modest deficit spending on infrastructure, a position more consonant with mainstream public opinion on the left and in the centre.
Perhaps most important, conservatives attacked Bush and Rove for failing to control the growth of government, allowing federal red ink to increase exponentially: from a surplus of $86.4 billion in 2000, and a modest $32.4 billion deficit in 2001, to a $434.2 billion deficit in 2006 (and that was before the financial collapse of 2008).
A more modest deficit-reduction package now being discussed, however, would cut only $1.4 billion nationwide over 10 years.
