Treasury announces record borrowing of $2.99 trillion

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Treasury Department says it will need to borrow a record $2.99 trillion during the current April-June quarter to cover the cost of various rescue efforts dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Treasury said Monday that the $2.99 trillion it plans to borrow this quarter will far surpass the $530 billion quarterly borrowing it did in the July-September 2008 quarter as it dealt with the 2008 financial crisis.

The extraordinary sum of $2.99 trillion of borrowing in a single quarter dwarfs the $1.28 trillion the government borrowed in the bond market for all of 2019.