Answer
$\$1, 285.8$ billion per year
Work Step by Step
To find the average rate of increase, solve for the increase in budget debt then divide it by the time in years.
Increase in Debt = $\$(15,041-8,612) =\$6,429$ billion
Time = $2011 - 2006=5$ years
Divide the increase in budget by the number of years to obtain:
Average Annual Increase in Debt = $\dfrac{6429\text{ billion dollars}}{5\text{ years}}= 1,285.8$ billion dollars per year
