This book exposes intolerable global double standards in the treatment of debtors and argues that fairness, economic efficiency and principles common to all civilized legal systems, must and can be applied to so-called 'developing countries', or Southern sovereign debtors.

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The last time global sovereign debt reached the level seen today was at the end of the Second World War, and this shaped a generation of economic policymaking. International institutions were transformed, country policies were often draconian and distortive, and many crises ensued. By the early 1970s, when debt fell back to pre-war levels, the world was radically different. It is likely that changes of a similar magnitude -for better and for worse - will play out over coming decades. Sovereign Debt: A Guide for Economists and Practitioners is an attempt to build some structure around the issues of sovereign debt to help guide economists, practitioners and policymakers through this complicated, but not intractable, subject. Sovereign Debt brings together some of the world's leading researchers and specialists in sovereign debt to cover a range of sub-disciplines within this vast topic. It explores debt management with debt sustainability; debt reduction policies with crisis prevention policies; and the history with the conjuncture. It is a foundation text for all those interested in sovereign debt, with a particular focus real world examples and issues.

This volume contains a series of 21 papers presented at the International Conference of Economists, held at the University of Zagreb, Yugoslavia. The contributors discuss policy issues of macro-economic managment and offer general and overall approaches to the debt and growth problems of the 1980s.

This paper reviews Bank-Fund staff experience with strengthening public debt management (PDM) frameworks and capacity in developing countries. In 2001, the IMF and the World Bank developed sound practice guidelines in this area, followed by a pilot program to assist 12 countries develop and implement reforms. In addition, an assessment of PDM has been incorporated into surveillance work, where relevant, and included in other Bank and Fund advisory and technical assistance work. Based on these, the paper draws key lessons, identifies the continuing challenges facing debt managers, and proposes further capacity building and advisory work in PDM. The 12 countries in the pilot program were Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Zambia.

The Revised Guidelines for Public Debt Management have been developed as part of a broader work program undertaken by the IMF and the World Bank to strengthen the international financial architecture, promote policies and practices that contribute to financial stability and transparency, and reduce countries external vulnerabilities.

This medium-term debt management strategy paper discusses the assessment of recent capacity building. The effective debt management and hence the design and implementation of a debt management strategy depend on the macroeconomic and institutional context, but the connection is two-way: sound debt management is critical to macro and financial stability, and financial and overall development. Within the constraints of the macroeconomic framework, the debt manager has the delicate task of balancing domestic and external sources of financing of various tenors to meet the government funding needs at low over-all cost and contained risk. Sound debt management contributes to reduced macro-financial risks, complementing prudent fiscal management and monetary policy implementation. Debt management contributes to market and institutional development. The debt manager’s ability to cover external public financing requirements through external debt issuance and avoid undue bunching of debt service obligations helps reduce crowding out, exchange rate pressures, or large swings in international reserves.