Federal Debt: A Primer

Congressional Budget Office

No 56165, Reports from Congressional Budget Office

Abstract: Federal debt held by the public at the end of 2019 was $16.8 trillion—or 79 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—an amount far greater than the average debt for the past 50 years. CBO projects that if current laws generally remained unchanged, that debt would increase to $31.4 trillion, or 98 percent of GDP, by 2030. This report explains how federal borrowing is structured and measured, who owns it, how it has evolved over time, how much it is projected to grow, and what its budgetary and economic consequences are.

JEL-codes: H20 H50 H60 H62 H63 H68 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-03-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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