Small Vulnerable Economies Country Debt Data Templates

Background

At their recent meetings in 2009 Commonwealth  Heads of Government and Finance Ministers  expressed their concern at the growing debt burden of Commonwealth Small Vulnerable Economies (SVEs), particularly in light of the ongoing global economic crisis. The Secretariat was urged to undertake work to develop innovative policy options for further discussion by the Commonwealth and the international community.

To fulfill this mandate, the Secretariat is undertaking the necessary analytical work to set out the nature of this challenge in detail and to develop potential policy options for senior policy maker discussion and possible consideration  by Commonwealth Finance Ministers. Credible policy proposals can only be developed from an informed, accurate and up to date understanding of the sovereign debt position of Commonwealth SVEs which reflects the impact of the crisis on the debt position of Commonwealth SVEs. To build this understanding each country is being asked to complete a simple debt data template (see templates below). Each country template builds upon existing publically available debt data and focuses on the time period since the onset of the crisis (for which period debt data is not readily available).
Instructions

Completed country templates should be sent to Samantha Attridge s.attridge@commonwealth.int by the 10th March 2010. If there are any queries please contact Samantha Attridge, Economic Advisor, Economic Affairs Division at the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Please click on you country template to download to complete.

Each template requests information covering 11 areas as follows:

1. Risk of debt distress
2. Total public debt split
3. Public and publicly guaranteed external debt
4. Debt service ratios
5. Currency composition
6. Creditor composition
7. Interest rate structure
8. Domestic debt tenor
9. Average terms of new commitments
10. Arrears
11. Restructuring

Many thanks for taking the time to contribute to this important initiative.