Indonesia's Debt Pales in Comparison: The Scale of US Debt Interest Payments

Jakarta — The United States has become one of the countries required to pay substantial annual debt interest. The figures are strikingly different from those of developing countries such as Indonesia, whose government debt is estimated to reach 599.44 trillion rupiah in the 2026 state budget.

In the first five months of the US fiscal year 2026, through February 2026, the American government is estimated to have recorded a deficit of approximately US$1 trillion, equivalent to 16.865 trillion rupiah (at an exchange rate of 16,865 rupiah per US dollar). This figure comes from an updated monthly report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as of February 2026. Additionally, the US government is estimated to have accumulated additional borrowing of US$308 billion in just the past month alone.

American fiscal conditions have once again come under scrutiny due to the rapid pace of debt accumulation amid increased government spending. It should be noted that the US fiscal year does not follow the calendar year. The fiscal year 2026 in the United States runs from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026.

According to data from the US Department of the Treasury, US government debt as of 21 January 2026 reached US$38.5 trillion, rising 2.7% from the previous year’s US$37.6 trillion in just one month. US debt has continued to climb: in 2024 it reached US$33.2 trillion, in 2023 it stood at US$33.2 trillion, and in 2022 it was US$30.9 trillion.

Debt Interest Payments Exceed Hundreds of Billions of Dollars

Rising debt inevitably increases the burden of interest payments the government must service. From October 2025 to February 2026, the US Department of the Treasury paid an additional US$31 billion, approximately 522.82 trillion rupiah, in net public debt interest compared to the same period the previous year. With this increase, total US public debt interest payments in the first five months of fiscal year 2026 have reached US$433 billion, or approximately 7.3 quadrillion rupiah, to service debt obligations.

The CBO explained that this rise in interest burden is due to the total government debt now being larger than the previous year, whilst long-term interest rates remain at elevated levels. Nevertheless, a decline in short-term interest rates has somewhat moderated the overall growth rate of interest payments.