An outstanding feature of our economy? (8,4)
I believe the answer is:
national debt
'feature of our economy?' is the definition.
(the debt of a government or state)
'an outstanding' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'an' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one) and 'i' is present in the answer.
'outstanding' could be 'debt' (I've seen this before) and 'debt' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for national debt that I've seen before include "which the whole country must pay for" , "Money a country owes" , "Do we all owe this" , "something for government to handle" , "Total government borrowing" .)