Debt Dollars

For pre-Covid year ending 2/20, interest payments totaled $550 billion and the average interest rate on all outstanding U.S. Treasuries was 2.4%. Interest payments and the average interest rate paid both bottomed out for the year ending 1/22 at $320 billion and 1.55%. For CY2023, interest payments were $750 billion and the average rate was 3.1%. The budget deficit has been disturbingly high on a regular basis since CY2016.