noun

• The total amount of money which a country's government has borrowed.

  ‘Where else can you spend money, boost your savings, and help fund the national debt all at the same time?’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Governments have saved billions by refinancing the national debt at lower interest rates.’
  • ‘By the end of the decade, then, the deficit and the national debt may warrant genuine anxiety.’
  • ‘Second, the necessity for economic restructuring is obviated by the pooling of national debts into a currency union.’
  • ‘The huge savings on the national debt are a result of the sharp fall in interest rates in Europe and worldwide.’
  • ‘Another permutation could be to cut spending and taxes and retire the national debt.’
  • ‘Wage and pension cuts were implemented to pay off the national debt.’
  • ‘But there is a Social Security crisis based on ideology and on the total national debt.’
  • ‘In addition, the government had been able to reduce direct taxation and pay off part of the national debt from the proceeds of privatization.’
  • ‘Third is the impact of sustained surpluses and repayment of the national debt on financial markets.’
  • ‘Instead, they want to spend the surplus on tax cuts and paying down the national debt.’
  • ‘If and when the liability crystallises from the raft of legal cases pending, the size of the national debt will rise, possibly by great sums.’
  • ‘What's amazing is that even in the accounts of agencies tasked with servicing the national debt, money is just sitting there.’
  • ‘The total national debt has risen 30 percent in the past four years.’
  • ‘Because the debt is a national debt, accrued in our name, it is our name that we must pay the interest and the principal.’
  • ‘European governments are eagerly proposing schemes to use proceeds from the sale of gold to fund everything from basic science research to paying down their ballooning national debts.’
  • ‘Although inflation was reversed, the national debt greatly increased, as did unemployment.’
  • ‘They were allowed to double the national debt in four years.’
  • ‘They would also be appalled by our enormous national debt and the dismal status of our huge welfare programs.’
  • ‘Finally, as the surplus dwindles, the government will pay off less of the national debt.’