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US Treasury Market Tops $30 Trillion, Doubling Since 2018

(Bloomberg) -- US government debt in Treasuries topped $30 trillion for the first time — having more than doubled since 2018 as the pandemic-era borrowing surge takes its toll.

The combined total amount of Treasury bills, notes and bonds increased by about 0.7% in November to $30.2 trillion, according to data released Thursday.

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A borrowing surge in 2020 to finance pandemic-related spending and higher borrowing rates have driven up the cost of paying interest on the debt, which accounts for growing share of the federal deficit.

“The gap between what the government spends and what it takes in has been persistent, which is why the debt burden has continued to grow over the last two decades,” said Guneet Dhingra, head of US interest-rate strategy at BNP Paribas. “Since Covid it’s been compounded because a lot of debt has been borrowed at higher rates, which makes interest cost become an exacerbating factor on the fiscal dynamics.”

The US borrowed $4.3 trillion via sales of Treasuries in 2020, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, as the deficit exceeded $3 trillion. While the deficit has since contracted, most recently to about $1.78 trillion in fiscal 2025, due in large part to revenue from tariffs the US placed on many imports this year, the debt service cost was $1.2 trillion.

“The big challenge is interest expense,” said Jason Williams, an interest-rate strategist at Citigroup Inc. “Even if tariff revenue is $300 billion to $400 billion, that’s still less than the interest we’re paying on the existing debt. We’re in quicksand and not able to get out of it with just the tariffs. We’re drowning more slowly, but we’re still drowning.”

While the sizes of its longer-term debt auctions have been stable for most of the past two years and are projected not to change over the next several quarters, Treasury officials last month said they were beginning “to preliminarily consider future increases.”

Treasury debt is the largest component of the US national debt, which totaled $38.4 trillion in November and includes money that’s owed to the Social Security Trust Fund and holders of Savings Bonds, among others. The statutory debt limit, currently $41.1 trillion, applies to the total.