News Brief No. 02/116

News Brief: IMF and World Bank Publish Accompanying Document to the Guidelines for Public Debt Management

November 21, 2002

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group have jointly published Guidelines for Public Debt Management: Accompanying Document, a compendium of case studies designed to illustrate the variety of approaches to public debt management taken by 18 countries in different areas of the world, and at different stages of economic and financial development.

"A government's debt stock is usually the largest financial portfolio in the country. It often contains complex financial structures and can create substantial balance sheet risk for the government. Several debt market crises have highlighted the importance of sound debt management practices and the need for efficient and sound capital markets. Improved debt management will reduce a country's vulnerability to economic and financial shocks, and support the environment for growth," noted IMF First Deputy Managing Director Anne Krueger and World Bank Group Managing Director Jeffrey Goldstein, in a joint foreword to the Accompanying Document.

The Accompanying Document complements the IMF and World Bank's Guidelines for Public Debt Management, which were endorsed by the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Development Committee at their Spring 2001 Meetings, and it illustrates the variety of approaches taken by countries to develop their public debt management practices in a manner consistent with the Guidelines. The experience of these countries offers some useful practical suggestions of the steps that other countries could take as they build their capacity in public debt management.

In line with the process adopted for the Guidelines (see News Brief No. 01/36), the preparation of the Accompanying Document has been one that has sought to foster countries' sense of ownership of the product, and ensure that the description of individual country practice and the lessons learned are well grounded. To this end, the case studies were prepared by government debt managers with the coordination of staff from the IMF and the World Bank. IMF and World Bank staffs also prepared Part I of the Accompanying Document, which summarizes the key lessons from the case studies.

Two formal rounds of consultations were held with the country officials that prepared the case studies to ensure that the lessons were well-grounded, and a conference organized by IMF and World Bank staffs was held in Washington in September 2002 so that the country officials could discuss the lessons drawn from the case studies.