In the context of rising public debt ratios and tightening financial conditions and spaces, especially in developing economies, studying the drivers of public debt accumulation is more important than ever. The successive Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine war have pressured public finances and paved the way for further debt accumulation, thus accelerating a trend initiated in the 2010s. This note investigates the challenges associated with public debt decompositions and proposes a methodology relying on publicly available data from the IMF and World Bank. In particular, it addresses core questions such as stock-flow adjustments generated by nonexpenditure flows, hidden debt and the definition and valuation of external debt. […]