The Public Debt Management Newtwork

The government should regularly publish information on the stock and composition of its debt and financial assets, including their currency, maturity, and interest rate structure. Also the financial position of the public sector should be regularly disclosed. This policy area covers all issues related to the rules and accounting standards, set both at a national and international levels. Their implications for debt issuance policy (such as transparency and investor relations) are also examined. Indeed transparency is related to accountability and the quality and scope of information. Debt managers must decide how much information about their objectives they would like to disclose. The allocation of responsibilities among the different agents (ministry of finance, central bank, debt management office or agency) with respect to the different functions involved in debt management should be clear to all investors. In order to address investors' uncertainty and risk, all materially important aspects of debt management transactions should be carefully managed in terms of disclosure. All governments make use of a wide variety of communication vehicles, such as yearly public debt guidelines, regular formal reports on their performances and media announcements on issuance plans and design. In some countries, public debt management performance is subject to regular external review. This reflects a general consensus among countries that markets work best, and debt service costs are minimised, when uncertainty regarding the objectives and execution of debt management policy as well as the related state of government finances is kept to minimum.

Sample Documents

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