US national debt exceeds $40 trillion for the first time in history

The US national debt has exceeded $40 trillion for the first time, reaching a new record high. The BBC reported this, citing the country's Treasury Department.

As of August 18, the total amount of public debt was $40 trillion 47 billion. Of this, more than $32 trillion 265 billion are obligations to private investors, the population and organizations, and more than $7 trillion 781 billion are intergovernmental (between state funds and structures) domestic debt obligations.

For comparison, in 2016, the national debt was slightly less than $20 trillion. The statutory limit for US public debt is $41 trillion 103 billion. According to forecasts, by 2036 this figure may reach about $64 trillion.

The increase in the debt burden in the 19 months since Trump's inauguration in 2025 has amounted to almost $ 3.83 trillion. For reference, during this period of his first presidential term, the national debt increased by $ 1.47 trillion. In total, from 2017 to 2021, the national debt increased by $ 7.8 trillion.

The largest debt among the Central Asian countries is observed in Kazakhstan. As of April 1, 2026, the republic's public debt reached $ 76.5 billion, which is 21% more than a year earlier. Uzbekistan's public debt amounted to $ 47 billion, an increase of $ 4.4 billion in a year.

Kyrgyzstan's public debt is estimated at $ 9.8 billion, which is 47% more than a year earlier. In February of this year, it became known that Tajikistan's public debt reached $3.5 billion. Of this, $3 billion was external debt, and the rest was domestic loans.

There is not enough open data on the official websites of Turkmenistan's economy. However, one of the World Bank reports states that Turkmenistan's gross domestic product in 2025 will amount to $77.4 billion. The republic's public debt is 5.2 percent of GDP. Based on this, it becomes clear that Turkmenistan's public debt is around $4 billion.