IMF Workshop on Debt Sustainability and Debt Management for Low-Income Countries - Cancelled

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Canonical URL: IMF Workshop on Debt Sustainability and Debt Management for Low-Income Countries - Cancelled

Status: Cancelled
Session No.: CT 20.01
Location: Dalian, China
Date: February 24, 2020 - March 5, 2020 (2 weeks)
Primary Language: English
Qualifications: Participants should have a degree in economics or finance. Experience with debt sustainability analysis, or credit risk analysis would be extremely useful.
Target Audience:
- Officials in Eximbank or CDB directly involved in lending decisions (loan officers, credit risk analysts)
- Officials in the PBoC engaged in designing swap arrangements in EMs/LICs
- Officials from NDRC, China Export and Credit Insurance Corp, CIDCA, and other agencies engaged in lending/aid
- Officials in the Ministries of Commerce, Foreign Affairs, and Finance overseeing lending/aid to EMs/LICs
- Officials from borrowing countries responsible for macroeconomic and fiscal/budget projections

The course was presented by the IMF's Strategy, Policy, and Review Department and provided a comprehensive overview of tools for debt sustainability analysis with particular emphasis on assessing proposals to scale up investment.
Core analytical areas covered:
- Determination of a country's debt carrying capacity (both external and total debt)
- Checking forecasts for realism, with close attention to investment-growth linkages
- Assessing contingent risks arising from gaps in data on total public debt
- Examining risks posed by shocks (natural disasters, commodity prices, market exposures)
- Incorporating other factors that could influence debt outcomes (assets, private debt, etc.)
- Categorizing risks for external and total debt, and qualifying them
- Thinking about fiscal space for borrowing
- The IMF's Debt limits policy and international agreements on structuring lending
- How different approaches to financing investment could impact assessments
- Thinking about sustainability

Coverage of global architecture for debt resolution, including:
- The process of private debt resolution
- The process for resolution of official debt at the Paris Club
- Creditor type and hierarchy
- Typical solutions deployed by negotiators in restructuring situations
IMF policies and frameworks addressed:
- The IMF's policies when dealing with countries in a debt resolution situation, including:
- The lending framework for exceptional access
- The financing assurance policy
- The lending into arrears policy

Lectures complemented by hands-on exercises using the IMF/WB debt sustainability templates.
Group work to consider scenarios and their implications for the evolution of debt vulnerabilities, and options to mitigate risks.
Inclusion of a case study on a debt resolution.