Whether in the private sector or government, a debt crisis in one country can and frequently does spread economic pain to other countries. This can happen through a tightening of financial conditions such as a spike in interest rates, a slowdown in trade and economic growth, or merely a steep decline in confidence.
What is Public Debt Management and Why is it Important?
1. Sovereign debt management is the process of establishing and executing a strategy for managing the government's debt in order to raise the required amount of funding, achieve its risk and cost objectives, and to meet any other sovereign debt management goals the government may have set, such as developing and maintaining an efficient market for government securities.
2. In a broader macroeconomic context for public policy, governments should seek to ensure that both the level and rate of growth in their public debt is fundamentally sustainable, and can be serviced under a wide range of circumstances while meeting cost and risk objectives. Sovereign debt managers share fiscal and monetary policy advisors' concerns that public sector indebtedness remains on a sustainable path and that a credible strategy is in place to reduce excessive levels of debt..
3. Poorly structured debt in terms of maturity, currency, or interest rate composition and large and unfunded contingent liabilities have been important factors in inducing or propagating economic crises in many countries throughout history. For example, irrespective of the exchange rate regime, or whether domestic or foreign currency debt is involved, crises have often arisen because of an excessive focus by governments on possible cost savings associated with large volumes of short-term or floating rate debt.
4. A government's debt portfolio is usually the largest financial portfolio in the country. It often contains complex and risky financial structures, and can generate substantial risk to the government's balance sheet and to the country's financial stability. As noted by the Financial Stability Forum's Working Group on Capital Flows, "recent experience has highlighted the need for governments to limit the build-up of liquidity exposures and other risks that make their economies especially vulnerable to external shocks." Therefore, sound risk management by the public sector is also essential for risk management by other sectors of the economy "because individual entities within the private sector typically are faced with enormous problems when inadequate sovereign risk management generates vulnerability to a liquidity crisis." Sound debt structures help governments reduce their exposure to interest rate, currency and other risks.
Government strategies :
Governments often issue bonds to borrow money. This enables them to avoid raising taxes and provides money to pay expenditures, while also stimulating the economy through public spending, theoretically generating additional tax income from prosperous businesses and taxpayers.
Issuing debt seems like a logical approach, but keep in mind that the government must pay interest to its creditors, and at some point, the borrowed money must be repaid. Historically, issuing debt has provided an economic boost to various countries, but in and of itself, the improved economic growth has not been particularly effective in reducing long-term government debt directly.
What is the importance of public debt?
Public debt is an important measure of bridging the financing gaps of the government. Prudent utilization of public debt leads to higher economic growth and adds to capacity to service and repay external and domestic debt. It also helps the government to accomplish its social and developmental goals.
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