Posted by Claudia Dziobek
The World Bank and The International Monetary Fund are joining efforts to present public sector debt statistics in an online centralized database. It is designed to complement the existing quarterly external debt statistics (QEDS) database. The new database is expected to come online in December 2010.
Purpose of the Public Sector Debt Statistics Centralized Database
The main purpose of this database is to facilitate timely dissemination of debt data of the public sector of members of the IMF’s General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) and, over time, the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS). By presenting such data (and related metadata) in a central location, the database will support macroeconomic analysis and cross-country comparisons.
The classifications and definitions are harmonized with those used in other statistical manuals, such as the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA2008), Government Finance Statistics Manual 2001 (GFSM2001), and Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6). The Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide is being prepared. Draft chapters are available at www.tffs.org.
The participation of countries is voluntary. The minimal requirement is reporting of central government debt by instrument (please refer to the Public Sector Debt template).
Countries are encouraged to provide tables for other sectors. Additional breakdowns are also encouraged if these data are available or can be produced.
The database frequency is quarterly, but if some components are only available annually, those data would also be acceptable.
Relation Between Public Debt Sector Statistics and External Debt Statistics
Public sector debt covers domestic and external debt of the general government, public nonfinancial corporations, and public financial corporations. External debt covers debt of the public and private sectors of an economy to foreign residents. Thus, the external debt of the public sector is a subset of external debt.
Main External Debt Indicators Published on the Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH)
The Joint External Debt Hub brings together external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debt sources. It is jointly maintained by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank (WB).
The Public Sector Debt Statistics database will be located in the vicinity of the JEDH at the following web address: www.worldbank.org/qpsd (Data available free of charge.)
Contacts: Ibrahim Levent (Ilevent@worldbank.org ) and Robert Dippelsman (rdippelsman@imf.org).
Note: The posts on the IMF PFM Blog should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy.
