0 the total amount of money that is owed by a country's government --
1 the total amount that is owed by a country's government because it has spent more than it has taken in taxes, etc.: --
They doubled the national debt in just under five years.
That is based on £15 billion being paid in interest on the national debt.
We must put the national debt and the cost of unemployment into perspective.
There is a record of corruption almost unequalled in modern history, and there is practically no national debt.
The 1980s saw a flowering of entrepreneurial activities that resulted in growth, in rising living standards and in repayment of national debt.
We could pay off the national debt from the money earned through people coming to this country to see such a person.
Germans are not worrying about their national debt, and they do not owe much more than we do.
The national debt is also dramatically affected by the non-collection rate.