Public Sector Debt Statistics (PSDSx)

Source details

Session No.: OL 24.205
Location: Course conducted online
Date: May 1, 2024 - April 15, 2025 (50 weeks)
Delivery Method: Online Training
Primary Language: French
Target Audience: Officials whose main responsibility is compiling and disseminating public sector debt statistics.
Qualifications: Participants are expected to have a degree in economics, public financial management, statistics, or equivalent experience.
Technical requirements: Access to a computer with a reliable Internet connection and a Google Chrome web browser and basic Microsoft Excel skills are essential.
The course is presented by the Statistics Department.

The course covers the fundamentals needed to compile and disseminate comprehensive public sector debt statistics (PSDS) useful for policy- and decision-makers, as well as other users.
Introduces the conceptual statistical framework for PSDS as presented in the Public Sector Debt Statistics: Guide for Compilers and Users 2011 (PSDSG 2011), in the context of the government finance statistics (GFS) framework, which is harmonized with other macroeconomic statistical frameworks.
Topics and technical coverage include:
- Basic concepts, definitions, and classifications relevant to PSDS.
- Principal accounting rules, including valuation and consolidation, that are relevant for PSDS compilation.
- Recommended instrument and institutional coverage for compiling comprehensive, internationally comparable PSDS.
- Recording contingent liabilities such as government guarantees.
- The impact on PSDS of debt-related issues such as debt assumption, debt forgiveness, on-lending, financial leases, and financial bailouts.
- Important PSDS compilation considerations, including what PSDS to compile and disseminate, and the IMF’s guidelines and standards on disseminating PSDS.
- Possible uses of PSDS, including Debt Sustainability Analyses (DSA), and fiscal risk and vulnerability analyses.

Upon completion of the course, participants should be able to:

Explain the essence of the GFS framework and how it relates to public sector debt statistics.
Apply the main macroeconomic principles to determine what is considered to be debt in the accounts of the debtor.
Apply the main macroeconomic principles to determine who is the debtor, classify the debtor appropriately inside or outside the public sector, and identify the types of counterparties to the debt instruments.
Use the principal macroeconomic accounting rules to compile public sector debt statistics.
Compile a comprehensive and internationally comparable public sector debt statistics report, with supplementary tables, that is suitable for fiscal policymaking and analyses.
Explain the importance of comprehensive, consistent, and comparable public sector debt statistics in various facets of fiscal policymaking, including Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA).