News Brief No. 01/36

News Brief: IMF and World Bank Publish Public Debt Management Guidelines

April 13, 2001

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have published a final version of the Guidelines for Public Debt Management. These guidelines were drafted to assist governments build capacity for managing their debt and thereby reduce their vulnerability to international financial shocks.

The guidelines, which are posted on the external websites of the IMF (http://www.imf.org/external/np/mae/pdebt/2000/eng/intro.htm) and World Bank (http://www.worldbank.org/fps/guidelines/), cover both domestic and external public debt and encompass a range of financial claims on government. They are designed to identify areas in which there is broad agreement on what generally constitutes sound practices in public debt management. The guidelines focus on principles applicable to a wide range of countries at different stages of development and with various institutional structures for debt management.

"We expect these guidelines will be useful to countries that are seeking to reduce financial vulnerability and improve their macroeconomic policy frameworks," Piero Ugolini, Chief of the Monetary Operations Division of the IMF's Monetary and Exchange Affairs Department, said. "Even though the implementation of the guidelines will vary depending on each country's circumstances, the guidelines raise public policy issues that are relevant for all countries," Graeme Wheeler, Director of the World Bank's Financial Products and Services Department, said. "The Bank and Fund will assist client countries to strengthen their debt management capacity."

A set of draft guidelines was prepared jointly by the staffs of the IMF and World Bank in consultation with national debt management experts, and was published on the external websites of the Fund and World Bank in August 2000. The final version of the guidelines will be published in five languages: Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

More than 300 representatives from 122 countries and territories and 19 institutions participated in consultative meetings with IMF and World Bank staff during the drafting of the final version of the guidelines. Looking ahead, the IMF and World Bank staffs will be preparing case studies of different government's debt management practices to illustrate how the guidelines can be applied in a range of settings. Fund and Bank staff will report on their findings to the Executive Boards of the IMF and World Bank.