For the HIPCs, the debt structure is overwhelmingly public and publicly guaranteed, which accounted for 80 per cent of total external debt at end 1996.

For starters, when it comes to public debt, there is a big difference between the gross and net figures. While Japan s gross public debt, for example, is a massive 246 of GDP, the net figure, accounting for intra government debts, is 127 of GDP.

In addition, given that local government debt comprises 27 of China s 2010 GDP, while central government debt and policy loans stand at 20 and 6 of GDP, respectively, the total public debt to GDP ratio is approximately 53 lower than Germany s. So, while China should not be complacent about local government debt, panic is unwarranted.

Public and publicly guaranteed debt continued to account for the major share of long term debt, at 83 per cent of the total, but the volume of private non guaranteed debt accelerated by 18 per cent and its share rose from 15 per cent in 1996 to 17 per cent of the total.

Government borrowing remained very modest and the Government s outstanding debt will stand at 7.0 per cent of GDP by the end of the 1997 98 fiscal year.

As for Chinese banks, the main problem appears to be exposure to ballooning local government debt, which, according to the government, totaled 1.7 trillion (roughly 30 of GDP) at the end of 2010. Approximately half of this debt was on their books prior to the crisis.

The budget deficit stood at more than 50 per cent and public debt at almost 90 per cent of GDP.

The Government is continuing to guarantee the payment of debt obligations.

Options for lower debt burdens on Governments of heavily indebted developing countries include debt cancellation and debt swaps for sustainable development.

How, people ask, will governments repay all of the hundreds of billions of dollars that they owe? As British Prime Minister David Cameron put it Government debt is the same as credit card debt it s got to be paid back.

Treaties governing intergovernmental debt

IMF requested that the Government desist from repaying any debt until the entire quantum of debt is determined and rescheduled and the repayments are prioritized. (See table 7.

But this situation has deteriorated recently, for two reasons. First, the total volume of JGBs has become extremely high relative to households net monetary assets, which stand at roughly 1,100 trillion.

The unliquidated obligations charged during the last month of the fiscal year constituted 80 per cent of the total of unjustified unliquidated obligations.

The unliquidated obligations charged during the last month of the fiscal year constituted 80 per cent of the total of unjustified unliquidated obligations.

Public and publicly guaranteed debt rose moderately, while bond financing fell dramatically by 40 per cent.

In addition to estimating financing gaps and identifying the sources of financing (including different scenarios of debt rescheduling), DSA includes an analysis of debt dynamics to determine the stability of debt to GDP or debt to government revenue ratios.

Overall, short term debt and total debt service also declined.

As at 30 September 1997, the Government s total debt stood at 55 million, including a spending overrun of more than 6 million in the last fiscal year.

In the current situation, the US cannot reduce the real value of its government debt significantly by indulging in a bout of inflation, because the average maturity on existing debt is very short only about four years. And the projected fiscal deficits imply that the additional debt that will be issued during the next decade will be as large as the total stock of debt today.

11. In a statement to the Fono in January 1998, Governor Tauese Sunia stated that the Government s indebtedness included long term debts of 32 million.

In the first quarter of 1998, net public debt increased by 4 per cent to reach US 15 billion, of which 17 per cent was foreign debt (US 2.5 billion or about 16 per cent of GDP).

Similarly, in guaranteeing the debt of Irish banks in September 2008, the Irish government did something that no responsible government should have contemplated. It took responsibility for obligations that amounted to a multiple of Ireland s national income, driving up government debt to more than 1,300 of GDP.

In volume terms, purely private debt accounted for two thirds of the increase and public and publicly guaranteed debt for approximately one third.

For Greece, with an overall deficit of 4.1 of GDP and a debt GDP ratio of 170 , the debt ratio would fall if the combination of inflation and real (inflation adjusted) GDP growth exceeded 2.4 . Stated differently, now that Greece has achieved a zero primary budget deficit, its debt burden will decline if its nominal growth rate exceeds the average interest that it pays on its government debt.

An additional criterion is a ratio of present value of debt to government revenue of 280 per cent (together with additional conditions related to a ratio of government revenue to gross domestic product (GDP) of 20 per cent and a ratio of exports to GDP of 40 per cent).

At that point, a stock of debt operation in the Paris Club would also take effect, i.e., reduction of the stock of debt.

Samoa News, 13 January 1998. Addressing the precarious financial situation of the Territorial Government, the Governor said that the Government had access to 4 million in revenue generated from excise taxes specifically passed by the Fono to pay off the Government s debts.

For starters, Syriza and others argue that Greece's public debt, at a massive 170 of GDP, is unsustainable and must be cut. Given that the country's official debt constitutes the bulk of its overall public debt, the government wants it reduced.

As of 31 December 1993, the interest owed on the external public debt totalled some B 1,518 million. Adding this to the principal outstanding on the contractual public debt gives a total public sector debt of B 7,228.9 million at the end of 1993.

Many African countries under democratically elected Governments are grappling with the repayment of these debts, which the President of Nigeria once described as dubious and immoral .

In December 2001, the Government declared default on its external debt.

Latin American debt indicators generally indicated a sustainable debt position for the region as a whole, with a debt service ratio of 12 per cent, debt stock to exports and to GNP ratios of 103 per cent and 43 per cent respectively, and a short term debt to reserves ratio of 71 per cent.

Indeed, Japan s debt to GDP ratio is around 170 much higher than in Greece, where the figure stands at around 110 . But, despite the grim parallel, Japan s government does not seem to think that it needs to take the problem seriously.

Taxation remains the dominant source of government revenue in most developed countries. But the role of debt finance has been growing and, with it, the need to refinance old debt when total expenditure, including debt service, exceeds total revenue.

Figure II.2 Total unliquidated obligations

Recently, the Government of Viet Nam, through the Fund, has requested UNCTAD to provide debt management services.

Public deficits must be brought down to sustainable levels on a permanent basis, with a view to stopping the escalation of public debt.

Noted the request of Iraq for the cancellation or reduction of their sovereign debt.

The Argentine Government undertook a first debt swap in June 2001 government bonds with a face value of 29.5 billion were voluntarily exchanged for longer term instruments.

Debt rate ( GNP)

These flows, in turn, will depend inter alia on the effectiveness of measures taken by the international community to alleviate the external debt burden of heavily indebted African countries, which in SSA consists mainly of public and publicly guaranteed long term debt.

Fourth, there is no connection between the size of national debt and the price that a government must pay to finance it. The interest rates that Japan, the United States, the UK, and Germany pay on their national debt are equally low, despite vast differences in their debt levels and fiscal policies.

I don't know.

In fact, you're building a long term liability by inflating civil service.