public debt

1. (Economics) the total financial obligations incurred by all governmental bodies of a nation

2. (Economics) another name for national debt

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

na′tional debt′

the financial obligations of a national government. Also called public debt.

[1775–85, Amer.]

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Noun

public debt - the total of the nation's debts: debts of local and state and national governments; an indicator of how much public spending is financed by borrowing instead of taxation

debt - money or goods or services owed by one person to another

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References in classic literature

Washington, though in retirement, was brooding over the cruel injustice suffered by his associates in arms, the warriors of the Revolution; over the prostration of the public credit and the faith of the nation, in the neglect to provide for the payments even of the interest upon the public debt; over the disappointed hopes of the friends of freedom; in the language of the address from Congress to the States of the eighteenth of April, 1788--"the pride and boast of America, that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human nature."

View in context

The public debt of the Union would be a further cause of collision between the separate States or confederacies.

View in context

According to the Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) September report, the domestic public debt increased to EGP 3.16tn at the end of June, compared to EGP 3.07tn in March 2017, and EGP 2.62tn at the end of June 2016.

Egyptian public debt records worrying level at EGP 3.16tn in June 2017

PUBLIC DEBT: AN ILLUSION OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL ECONOMY

Salsman's book is an intellectual laser beam that offers clarity and precision in an important but neglected area of political and economic thought: public debt theory.

The Political Economy of Public Debt: Three Centuries of Theory and Evidence

This is reflected in the "public debt brochure" published

Tunisia: debt ratio rises to 66.9% of GDP

According to official sources, public debt shall be reduced to less than 60 per cent of estimated GDP until 2017-18 and thereafter a 15 year transition has been set towards a debt to GDP ratio of 50 per cent.

Gross public debt records whopping Rs1,194bn increase

Balkan countries Montenegro, Albania and Croatia are at risk to have their public debt increased, lists the World Bank in the most recent Global Economic Prospects.

Macedonia among the least indebted countries in the region: the public or national debt consists of the capital that the country borrowed for financing the deficit

8 (Petra) -- Jordan's public debt surged to JOD26.046 billion by the end of September, comprising 95 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, estimated at JOD27.41 billion, according to official figures.

Jordan's public debt stands at JOD26bln

Public debt has become a major issue for almost all the industrialized economies.

Government debt, gross investment and economic growth in Punjab state

The article presents an analysis of the way public debt operates in Romania, in the context of states economies trends, of complex and topical financial environments.

Public debts trends in the current economic context, from both national and international perspective