Design Choices for Debt Sustainability
From a rules-based approach to a constrained discretion regime
Emerging markets confront increasing fiscal pressures amid rising debt costs and constrained fiscal space. Current rigid fiscal rules often lead to complexity and instability. This report recommends a flexible, regime-based framework that enhances transparency, accountability, and debt sustainability, aiming to improve fiscal management and resilience in developing economies.
Policy Recommendations
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Replace rigid debt rules with flexible debt anchors designed to ensure long-term sustainability while allowing for temporary deviations to address shocks.
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Embed anchors in a broader fiscal policy regime, incorporating goals, fiscal strategies, and independent evaluations to build a cohesive framework that balances fiscal discipline with adaptability.
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Enhance transparency and accountability, requiring governments to outline clear policy strategies, communicate future fiscal intentions, and disclose relevant data to strengthen market and public confidence.
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Leverage independent institutions, establish fiscal councils or similar bodies to assess fiscal risks, advise policy-makers, and ensure fiscal strategies align with debt sustainability objectives.
Emerging markets and developing economies are navigating a complex fiscal landscape marked by rising debt costs and shrinking fiscal space. Traditional rules-based frameworks, once seen as the cornerstone of fiscal discipline, are increasingly showing their limitations. Their rigidity stifles flexibility, while overlapping rules create confusion and inefficiencies.
This report offers a rethink: moving beyond rigid debt rules to embrace flexible debt anchors that safeguard long-term sustainability without sacrificing the ability to respond to shocks. By embedding these anchors within a comprehensive fiscal regime (complete with clear objectives, strategic planning, and independent oversight), governments can build a more resilient, coherent framework. Enhanced transparency and accountability are central to restoring market and public trust, while independent institutions like fiscal councils play a crucial role in guiding policy toward sustainable debt management.
For those shaping fiscal rules, this research provide a path to more effective, adaptable frameworks that meet today’s challenges head-on.
Participating experts
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