A
balanced budget (particularly that of a
government) refers to a
budget in which
revenues are equal to expenditures. Thus, neither a budget deficit nor a budget surplus exists ("the accounts
balance"). More generally, it refers to a budget that has no budget deficit, but could possibly have a
budget surplus. A
cyclically balanced budget is a budget that is not necessarily balanced year-to-year, but is balanced over the
economic cycle, running a surplus in boom years and running a deficit in lean years, with these offsetting over time.