Historically low interest rates have kept the cost of federal debt in check in recent years. “In 2008, the federal government made $253 billion in net interest payments on debt that was $5 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2007, for a 5 percent average interest rate on the debt,” Capretta notes. “The government made only $240 billion in interest payments in 2016, although the debt had more than doubled to $13.1 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2015, for a 1.8 percent average interest rate.”
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The coming challenge of servicing our national debt - AEI
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The coming challenge of servicing our national debt - AEI