Public Finance and Sovereign Debt
The Global Risks Alliance (GRA)
Topics at Public Finance and Sovereign Debt: the pages in this section are listed below, each with its own scope and status.
The Public Finance and Sovereign Debt topics are the eight subject dossiers of its field, among them sovereign debt sustainability, fiscal contingent liabilities and subnational fiscal risk. Each dossier sets out how the risk develops, what is measured and in which units, the public sources and their licences, the methods, who decides and the limits of the evidence.
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Topic pages in Public Finance and Sovereign Debt share one structure: mechanisms, indicators, sources, methods, decisions and limits, written for debt managers and fiscal risk units.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Risk of debt distress | The LIC DSF rating, from low to in distress, of a country's likelihood of difficulty servicing debt. |
| Government guarantee | A promise by the government to repay a borrower's debt if the borrower cannot. |
| Fiscal decentralisation | The assignment of revenue and spending responsibilities to lower levels of government. |
| Stabilisation fund | A fund that saves revenue in booms and releases it in downturns to smooth public spending. |
| Efficiency gap | The difference between actual infrastructure output and what the most efficient peers achieve with the same spending. |
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
Debt structure, servicing and shock sensitivity.
TopicGuarantees, disasters and public exposure.
TopicLocal and provincial budget shocks.
TopicResources, pricing and fiscal dependence.
TopicEvidence and capital planning.
TopicResilience of essential services.
TopicPhysical risks and state finance.
TopicQuality, limitations and comparability.
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