Publication: Sound Practice in Government Debt Management
Loading...
Published
2004
ISSN
Date
2013-08-12
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Government debt management has a long tradition. More than three centuries ago, the Bank of England was managing government debt, and the origins of Sweden's National Debt Office go back to 1789.1 In recent years, there has been a move toward building the professionalism of government debt management, beginning with the establishment of the New Zealand Debt Management Office in 1988 and Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency in 1990. It is no accident that the countries that were the first to substantially upgrade their government debt management in the late 1980s and early 1990s were those with histories of fiscal problems, high ratios of public sector debt to gross domestic product (GDP), and a large proportion of foreign currency debt in their government debt portfolios.2 These same features are characteristic of many developing countries today. Concern over rising government indebtedness has been a factor behind debt management reforms in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand, and it helps explain why several other governments, including those of Jordan, Lebanon, and Peru, are considering extensive reforms in government debt management.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Wheeler, Graeme. 2004. Sound Practice in Government Debt Management. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15017 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Small States : Performance in Public Debt Management(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-02)This paper analyzes the status of public debt management performance in 17 small states through the findings of the Debt Management Performance Assessment reports. Empirical evidence indicates that the higher the quality of a country's policies and institutions, the better is its capacity to carry debt and withstand exogenous shocks. Borrowing for productive purposes can be an important element in boosting growth of gross domestic product but, conversely, excessive borrowing or poorly structured debt in terms of maturity, currency, or interest rate composition can quickly offset the positive impact, deter new foreign and domestic investment, compromise reform programs, depress growth of gross domestic product, exacerbate the challenge of meeting debt service obligations, and may induce or propagate economic crises. Arguments in favor of sound debt management are especially compelling for small states that must mitigate the particular risks to which their economies are exposed. Against this backdrop, the paper identifies aspects of debt management where small states do relatively well and those where they perform poorly, relative to other developing countries, and examines the underlying factors at play. It elaborates on some of the successful measures taken by small states to enhance debt management performance and considers how these may be applied more broadly in other small states. The paper offers a number of practical suggestions to strengthen debt management performance.Publication Financial Globalization and the Russian Crisis of 1998(2010-05-01)Russia had more-or-less completed the privatization of its manufacturing and natural resource sectors by the end of 1997. And in February 1998, the annual inflation rate at last dipped into the single digits. Privatization should have helped with stronger micro-foundations for growth. The conquest of inflation should have cemented macroeconomic credibility, lowered real interest rates, and spurred investment. Instead, Russia suffered a massive public debt-exchange rate-banking crisis just six months later, in August 1998. In showing how this turn of events unfolded, the authors focus on the interaction among Russia's deteriorating fiscal fundamentals, its weak micro-foundations of growth and financial globalization. They argue that the expectation of a large official bailout in the final 10 weeks before the meltdown played an important role, with Russia's external debt increasing by $16 billion or 8 percent of post-crisis gross domestic product during this time. The lessons and insights extracted from the 1998 Russian crisis are of general applicability, oil and geopolitics notwithstanding. These include a discussion of when financial globalization might actually hurt and a cutoff in market access might actually help; circumstances in which an official bailout could backfire; and why financial engineering tends to fail when fiscal solvency problems are present.Publication Sovereign Debt Distress and Corporate Spillover Impacts(2010-07-01)In much of the standard corporate finance literature in which sovereign debt is treated as a risk free asset, corporate bond prices are seen to depend on idiosyncratic risk factors specific to the issuing company, with public debt playing an indirect role to the extent that it affects the term structure of interest rates. In the corporate world, however, the ability of a borrower to access international capital markets and the terms according to which it can raise capital depend not only on its own creditworthiness, but also on the financial health of its home-country sovereign. In times of financial stress, when investors lose confidence in the government's ability to use public finances to stabilize the economy or provide a safety net for corporations in distress, markets' assessment of private credit risk takes on a completely different dynamic than during normal times, incorporating an additional risk premium to compensate investors for the potential consequences of sovereign default. Using a new database that covers nearly every emerging-market corporate and sovereign entity that has issued bonds on global markets between 1995 and 2009, this paper investigates the degree to which heightened sovereign default risk perceptions during times of market turmoil influence the determination of corporate bond yield spreads, controlling for specific bond attributes and common global risk factors. Econometric evidence presented confirms that investors' perceptions of sovereign debt problems translate into higher costs of capital for private corporate issuers, with the magnitude of such costs increasing at times when sovereign bonds trade at spreads exceeding a threshold of 1000 bps. The key policy recommendation emerging from the analysis relates to the need to improve sovereign creditworthiness in order to prevent a loss in investor confidence that could trigger a panicky sell-off in sovereign debt with adverse macroeconomic and fiscal consequences. Implications for future research point to the need to develop better models of corporate bond pricing and valuation, recognizing explicitly the role of sovereign credit risk.Publication Debt Management Performance Assessment : Sierra Leone(Washington, DC, 2009-12)The results of this assessment show that seven (7) indicators warranted an overall score of C or better, demonstrating compliance with the minimum requirement; these referred to the debt management strategy; evaluation of debt management operation; coordination with fiscal policy; domestic borrowing; external borrowing; debt records and debt reporting, and debt administration and data security. A total of eight (8) indicators did not meet the minimum requirement at the time of the mission. These correspond to legal framework; managerial structure; audit, coordination with monetary policy; loan guarantees and on-lending; cash-flow forecasting and balance management; segregation of duties, staff capacity and business continuity and debt reporting. The mission notes that Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, or MOFED is currently implementing reforms in the areas of public debt management and domestic debt market development, including i) designing a new comprehensive public debt law; ii) implementing the reorganization of the debt management unit in MOFED; iii) formulating and implementing a procedures manual for debt management functions in MOFED; iv) implementing connectivity between two major data bases, namely CSDRMS and the integrated financial management system of the government. As a consequence, the mission expects several of these indicators to improve with reform implementation.Publication Strengthening Subnational Debt Financing and Managing Risks(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-08-16)The Chinese budget law prevents subnational governments from borrowing. However, Subnational Governments (SNG) borrows indirectly off-budget, through Urban Development and Investment Corporations (UDIC). There are various estimates on the off-budget liabilities, with one estimate having the liabilities at more than 30 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This paper provides a discussion of more reform options for China, anchored with cross-country experiences and lessons. The way forward is to develop regulatory frameworks that can expand SNG and UDIC market access and debt financing, while strengthening subnational fiscal discipline, managing default risks, promoting capital market development, and supporting macroeconomic management and a stable financial system. The paper is organized as: section two presents fiscal rules and framework - ex ante regulations for subnational debt issuing and procedures. Section three discusses what to do when a subnational government becomes insolvent - ex post system. Section four is devoted to developing regulatory frameworks for UDIC, which may require a debt restructuring system different from a system for direct debt of SNG. Ex post debt restructuring for UDIC may also differ from the existing bankruptcy code in China for corporations due to the fundamental difference between a public entity and a private corporation. Section five focuses on strengthening debt management capacity of SNG particularly with respect to liquidity and refinancing risks. Section six focuses on managing fiscal risks of land financing, given its prevalent use in China. Section seven discusses the development of a competitive and diversified subnational debt market. Section eight concludes with suggested reform options.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.