The U.S. national debt has surpassed the size of the economy, reaching its highest level since World War II, excluding a brief pandemic-era spike, according to new data that is sharpening concerns about the country’s long-term fiscal trajectory.
Debt held by the public reached $31.27 trillion as of March 31, slightly exceeding the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $31.22 trillion over the prior 12 months, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio to 100.2 percent, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) said in an April 30 report based on fresh figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The milestone marks a symbolic and economic threshold, with federal debt now roughly twice its historical average relative to the size of the economy. Outside of a brief distortion early in the COVID-19 pandemic—when output collapsed sharply—the United States has not ended a fiscal year with debt above 100 percent of GDP since 1946….