Public debt of the United States has exceeded $31 trillion for the first time, according to figures released by the U.S. Treasury Department.
According to the database on the Treasury Department website, as of October 3, the amount of $31.123 trillion is marked in the “aggregate public debt” column. This is a record for the U.S. public debt.
It is reported that the majority of debt holders are private individuals, who account for more than $24 trillion. Debts to foreign governments amount to almost seven trillion dollars.
As The New York Times notes, the record was broken at “an inopportune time when historically low interest rates are being replaced by higher interest rates on borrowing as the Federal Reserve tries to beat fast-growing inflation”. As a result, “these higher interest rates make it more expensive to service US debt in the long run,” the publication concludes.