“The Citizen’s Guide to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Financial Report of the U.S. Government presents the Nation’s financial position and condition of the U.S. Government and discusses key financial topics, including continuing economic recovery efforts and fiscal sustainability. Despite the severe economic downturn and recession that began at the end of 2007, the instability of the financial markets in 2008, and the necessary measures taken to help the economy recover in 2008 and 2009, the economy began to grow again in FY 2010. After falling by 2.7 percent during FY 2009, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent over the four quarters of FY 2010; the economy added 691,000 private nonfarm payroll jobs during FY 2010, after losing 6.3 million private jobs from private nonfarm payrolls during FY 2009. Increased Federal tax receipts and a decline in outlays resulted in a narrowing of the primarily cash-based U.S. budget deficit from $1.4 trillion to $1.3 trillion in FY 2010 while net operating cost increased significantly from $1.3 trillion to $2.1 trillion due in large part to increased estimated costs for federal employee and veteran benefits.”