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U.S. Federal Net Interest Payments, Quarterly
Federal interest paid minus interest received, % of GDP, quarterly at annual rates (national accounts)
Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.
Palanor calculation from BEA national accounts via FRED: (A091RC1Q027SBEA minus B094RC1Q027SBEA) divided by GDP. National-accounts interest includes interest imputed on federal employees’ pension liabilities, so its level runs above the budget’s net interest; compare the turns, not the levels.
The federal interest bill quarter by quarter, so a turn shows up within months rather than once a year.
What this chart reads
- US Federal Net Interest Payments · % of GDP (quarterly)as “Net interest payments”behindlatest 2026-04-01
Sources
US Federal Net Interest Payments · % of GDP (quarterly). Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, NIPA Table 3.2 (federal government current receipts and expenditures) and GDP, via FRED: A091RC1Q027SBEA, B094RC1Q027SBEA, GDP. Public domain. Palanor calculation in src/lib/sovereign/us-fiscal.ts.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.