1. What is the % of GDP is the national debt?
My Answer: The percentage of GDP is national debt is approx. 77%. Is this correct?
I went and used the latest figure of Real GDP which was the third quarter of 2006 being $11,443,000,000,000.50, which came from the Economic Report of the President “Transmitted to the Congress February 2007.”
I used the current national debt as of May 4, 2007 being $8,816,009,655,724.63 which that information comes from the TreasuryDirect’s website.
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Well, Sarah, you are definately on the right track. And you went to the right sources. However, you made some small errors which need to be fixed.
First, in the Economic Report, you used Real GDP, which expresses GDP in real 2000 dollars. I suggest you use the nominal GNP figure (on the preceeding page). As of the 3rd quarter, the 2006 Nominal GNP is $13,332.6 Billion. (BTW, the .6 means $600 million, not 60 cents.)
You used a 2007 nominal dollar debt figure. To be consistent, the years should match.
The Economic Report also lists the national debt in nominal dollars. The national debt in 2006 was $8451.4 billion. (I would guess the figure is the estimated debt at the end of the 2006 Federal Fiscal year).
So the percentage of GDP I get is 63%.