The deficit peaked in 1992 at $290 billion.

The deficit peaked at $153.4 billion in 1987.

Those deficits peaked at more than 6 percent in 1983.

The deficit peaked at $160 billion last year, and had finally begun to shrink convincingly.

The provincial deficit peaked at $1.2 billion in 1986-87, and the accumulated debt rose from $3.5 billion to $15 billion.

The gap then narrowed as the deficit peaked, and began to rise last year as the deficit dropped.

Its deficit peaked at 12.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2003, before falling to an estimated 5 percent this year.

But trade accounts are settled in money, not tonnage; the deficit in dollar transactions didn't peak until last year's final quarter.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit will peak at $362 billion in the fiscal year 1992 and fall to $156 billion by 1996.

The American deficit peaked in the third quarter of 1987 at an annual rate of $162.4 billion.