Low interest rates have helped defuse the United States' debt problems so far, but that won't last for long, strategist Peter Schiff told CNBC.

Schiff, president and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, said on Thursday "the debt bomb is going to explode."

"I think the [Federal Reserve] is going to try to inflate its way out of this problem, but it's going to inflate its way into a bigger one," Schiff said on "Squawk Alley."



He said low interest rates have allowed the U.S. to service its debt, but repaying it is almost off the table. Schiff said as interest rates rise and inflation grows, creditors are going to demand a higher premium.

Schiff's comments come as the U.S. is just weeks away from passing the $20 trillion mark in total public debt outstanding.



On Thursday, Schiff also took a stab at infrastructure spending, which President Donald Trump has vowed to increase while in office. Schiff said that is not going to help the economy.

"You don't help the economy by spending money," he said. "To the extent that we need to repair our infrastructure, that's a cost that we have to bear."



He continued: "The fact that it creates jobs, that's not a good thing because we're diverting resources that we might otherwise have been able to use more productively to make necessary repairs to our infrastructure."

