Category: public debt

Federal Public Debt Charges Up $2 Billion With Latest Interest Rate Hike: Budget Estimates

Public debt charges jumped nearly $2.3 billion with the latest interest rate hike by Canada’s central bank, according to arithmetic estimates from a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO). In September 2020, the PBO’s “Economic and Fiscal Outlook” report forecasted that a 1 percentage point increase in interest rate by the Bank of Canada…


Federal Public Debt Charges Up $2 Billion With Latest Interest Rate Hike, PBO Estimates

Public debt charges jumped nearly $2.3 billion with the latest interest rate hike by Canada’s central bank, according to estimates from a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO). In September 2020, the PBO’s “Economic and Fiscal Outlook” forecast that a 1 percentage point increase in interest rate by the Bank of Canada (BoC) would…


Congressional Lame Duck Quackery

Commentary There is little Republicans and Democrats in Congress agree on these days, but spending (and borrowing) money is as nonpartisan as it gets. House Democrats apparently have decided to leave their majority with a spending spree. They’ll do it the way they usually do. In a script familiar to an extortionist and to the…


The Debt Ceiling Is the Hammer

Commentary America’s public debt is now over $31.3 trillion! Watch the U.S. debt clock increase in real-time (here) and be shocked and amazed at how fast the debt is increasing. As the U.S. Treasury Department reported, “the national debt ($31.35 T) is the total amount of outstanding borrowing by the U.S. Federal Government accumulated over…


Federal Public Debt Charges Expected to Hit $53 Billion by 2024: Parliamentary Budget Office

Federal debt charges are expected to hit $53 billion by 2024, says the Parliamentary Budget Office in its “Risk Scenario Analysis” report. Published on Nov. 10, the report says that the debt service ratio, which is public debt charges relative to tax revenues, is projected to reach 14.3 percent in 2024. “Public debt charges are…


Global Debt Reaching ‘Dangerous’ Levels: IMF

Global debt is at such a high level that a worldwide cooperative approach is needed to tackle the danger, according to Vitor Gaspar, director of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) fiscal affairs department, and Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, the organization’s strategy chief. Data from the IMF’s Global Debt Database shows that borrowing rose by 28 percentage points…


Federal Government Posts $12.7B Deficit for June, Spending Down and Revenue Up

OTTAWA—The federal government posted a deficit of $12.7 billion for June compared with a deficit of $33.6 billion in June 2020. The drop in the deficit came as spending dropped compared with a year ago when Ottawa spent billions on emergency aid due to the pandemic and revenue improved. Program spending, excluding net actuarial losses,…


Yellen Details ‘Extraordinary Measures’ to Raise Cash as Debt Ceiling Hits

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday announced a series of so-called “extraordinary measures” the department is taking to give the federal government more room to spend under a reimposed debt cap. Yellen detailed the emergency maneuvers—chiefly pausing investments in certain government employee pension funds—in an Aug. 2 letter to congressional leaders that came as a two-year suspension…


Post-Pandemic Public Debt Cannot Be Cancelled, Says ECB’s Villeroy

PARIS—The governor of France’s central bank on Friday told President Emmanuel Macron that the country’s heavy public debt, bloated by spending to safeguard jobs and growth during the pandemic, posed a challenge to the economy but could not be cancelled. In his annual letter to the president, Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said easing the…


UK Reports Highest February Borrowing Since Records Began

The UK government is estimated to have borrowed £19.1 billion ($26.6 billion) last month, the highest for February since monthly records began in 1993. The borrowing figure is £17.6 billion ($24.5 billion), more than that of February 2020, according to new data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Friday. In February 2021,…