WASHINGTON, Jumada I 1, 1437, Feb 10, 2016, SPA -- The federal government recorded a budget surplus in January of $55.2 billion, helped by a timing quirk that shifted benefit payments to December. The Treasury Department says the January surplus marked an improvement from January 2015 when the government recorded a small deficit of $17.5 billion. Part of the improvement reflected the fact that $42 billion in benefit checks were sent out in December because the regular payment period fell on a weekend, AP reported. For the first four months of this budget year, the deficit totals $160.4 billion, below last year's deficit of $194.2 billion for the same period. Both the Obama administration and the Congressional Budget Office are forecasting that this year's deficit will top last year's imbalance of $439.1 billion. -- SPA 22:28 LOCAL TIME 19:28 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w