US Debt Tops Rp 712,000 Trillion, Rising by Rp 1.6 Billion per Second

The United States government’s debt has for the first time exceeded US$40 trillion, or around Rp 712,000 trillion (US$1 = Rp 17,800). Data from the US Treasury Department shows total government debt reached US$40.047 trillion as of 18 August 2026, up from US$37.209 trillion on 19 August 2025. Over nearly one year, US government debt increased by approximately US$2.839 trillion, or 7.63%. The increase continues a decade-long trend of debt expansion. In January 2017, total US government debt was around US$19.95 trillion. It has now more than doubled amid large government spending, tax cuts, and financing needs during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on data from the Debt Dashboard of the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, debt growth over the past year, from 19 August 2025 to 18 August 2026, averaged US$7.798 billion per day. That is equivalent to US$324.93 million per hour, US$5.42 million per minute, or US$90,257.73 per second, around Rp 1.6 billion. US government debt is divided into two main groups: debt held by the public and intragovernmental debt. Most of the increase came from debt held by the public, which rose by US$2.44 trillion over the period. Intragovernmental debt increased by about US$391.32 billion. Debt held by the public reached US$32.266 trillion, or about 81% of total US government liabilities. This group includes securities held by individual investors, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, central banks, and foreign governments. Intragovernmental debt reached US$7.782 trillion, or about 19%, held by various US government agencies and trust funds, including social security programmes.

Publicly held US government securities consist of several types of instruments with different maturities. According to US Treasury data as of July 2026, the total was around US$32.05 trillion. More than half of that debt was in the form of Treasury notes, medium-term securities, worth US$16.17 trillion, or 50.45% of the total. Treasury bills amounted to US$6.99 trillion, or 21.81%. These instruments have shorter maturities and generally mature in less than one year. Long-term bonds, or Treasury bonds, reached US$5.48 trillion, or 17.09%. The remaining US$3.41 trillion, or 10.65%, was in other instruments, including Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS).

Beyond the size of the debt, the US government also faces challenges from its debt maturity schedule. Based on data for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, about 33% of publicly held marketable US government securities will mature within 12 months. This means the government must arrange new financing to repay or replace maturing bonds. If interest rates rise, new debt issued to replace old securities could carry higher interest costs. The average maturity of US government debt was around 71 months in June 2026, slightly down from 72 months in June 2025, but still longer than the 69 months recorded in June 2021.

Although financing needs continue to rise, demand for US government securities still appears fairly strong at auctions. This is reflected in the bid-to-cover ratio, which compares the amount of bids received with the amount of bonds sold by the government. A ratio above two indicates that the value of bids received was at least twice the amount of securities offered. In addition to domestic investors, the US government also depends on foreign demand. Treasury International Capital data shows foreign holdings of US government securities reached US$9.299 trillion in June 2026. Japan was the largest holder with US$1.117 trillion, followed by the United Kingdom with US$939.9 billion and China with US$633.4 billion. However, total foreign holdings fell by about US$72.1 billion compared with May 2026. Japan reduced its holdings by about US$26.4 billion, while China cut about US$25.9 billion. The decline in foreign holdings warrants attention because the US government must still find buyers for new debt as well as replace maturing bonds.

Debt grows when government spending exceeds revenue. The gap is then covered by issuing securities. US government spending is around US$7 trillion per year. About 60% of that goes to mandatory programmes such as social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and services for veterans. Such spending is relatively difficult to reduce because it relates to public needs and government obligations. Financing needs also increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Various assistance and economic recovery programmes contributed about one-third of the increase in US debt since 2017. On the revenue side, tax cut policies have widened the budget deficit. In July 2026 alone, the US government deficit reached US$432 billion. The larger the accumulated debt, the larger the interest costs that must be paid. Annual US government interest costs are now around US$1.1 trillion. In the first 10 months of fiscal year 2026, interest payments even exceeded spending on the Medicare programme, making it one of the largest components of the budget.