WASHINGTON — US gross debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic product after the government's debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed.
On Tuesday, the Treasury had to add more than $200 billion of commitments immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling.
The liabilities had been temporarily taken off the federal government's balance sheet since May 16, when the Treasury reached the $14.29 trillion official cap.
It then used extraordinary measures to remain under the legal limit while deeply polarized Republicans and Democrats battled over raising the debt ceiling and reining in the country's massive deficit.
The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion.
With the latest borrowing, the United States joined a small group of countries whose public debt exceeds GDP, including Japan (229 percent), Greece (152 percent), Jamaica (137 percent), Lebanon (134 percent), Italy (120 percent), Ireland (114 percent) and Iceland (103 percent), according to figures provided by the International Monetary Fund.
