The World Bank has published a Working Paper entitled “How strategically is Public Debt Management managed around the globe: a survey of Public Debt Management Strategies”.
The legal requirement for and existence of a debt management strategy – as well as its approval, publication and dissemination – is regarded as a crucial indicator of the level of PDM and is indeed one of the DeMPA indicators.
117 countries responded to the survey. The results indicate that 60% of respondents have a formal debt management strategy in place and 40% (or 47 countries out of 117) did not.
Of those countries that have a debt management strategy in place:
- 44% have a legal requirement to do so;
- 97% have the document approved (mainly by the Minister of Finance);
- 77% of countries make the document public;
- 76% use some type of target or benchmark; and
- 71% use a qualitative framework or model.
Broken down by country group, 58% of low income countries responded they have a formal debt management strategy in place.
The Working Paper can be accessed at:
http://treasury.worldbank.org/bdm/pdf/DebtManagementSurveyCabral.pdf