REP/2000-1:

Fiscal implications of debt and debt relief: issues paper

by Jan Willem Gunning and Richard Mash

This paper forms part of the background work for a DfID workshop on the Fiscal Implications of Debt and Debt Relief, held on 20 November 1988, and was presented in summary form at that workshop.

The full report is available as a pdf file (45KB).

Please also see the companion piece REP/2000-3 for Phase II of this project: 'Analytical issues in domestic debt relief'.
 

Contents

• Can 'fiscal sustainability' criteria be devised and made operational for LDCs?
• How can the desirable amount and structure of internal and external debt be assessed?
• What are the monetary and macroeconomic implications of debt relief?
• What are the trade-offs in the use of donor resources for debt relief as opposed to the direct financing of government expenditure?
• Should debt relief be conditioned on total debt, domestic and foreign, but debt relief be limited to external debt?
• What is the relationship between debt strategy and attempts to raise domestic savings?
• What is the effect on debt strategy of uncertainty about future economic performance?

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SFS 13 April 2000