$17 trillion challenges the myth of an empty state treasury

The roughly $17 trillion borrowed by OECD countries in 2025 challenges the idea that a large borrowing figure automatically means states are running out of money. About $13.5 trillion of that total went toward refinancing loans that had already matured.

Governments commonly replace maturing debt with new borrowing rather than repay it permanently. That does not change the size of the debt stock, and the article describes the practice as logical and prudent because the size of the economy does not change significantly on the day a loan matures. Only about one in every five borrowed dollars represented a genuine increase in a country’s total debt.

The article also distinguishes between the government’s cash balance and the state’s overall financial position. Hungary’s Central Treasury Single Account is a key part of public cash flows and liquidity management, but it is not the country’s wallet in the way a private individual’s account might be. A lower balance can signal a smaller liquidity reserve, but it does not by itself show that the state faces payment difficulties. New public revenues will arrive, and the government can also borrow.

Liquidity concerns whether payments due now can be made. Solvency concerns whether debt remains sustainable over the longer term and whether the state can meet its obligations. The article says Hungary is in a strong position on both measures: it can continuously meet its payment obligations, while its debt stock relative to GDP remains below the European Union average.

An “empty treasury” becomes a real financing problem only when government revenues stay well below spending, the government cannot correct the gap and financial markets refuse to fund it. A country’s position becomes critical when investors will lend only at interest rates the state cannot realistically afford. Until then, the article says, describing the state as having an empty treasury is misleading.