Public Debt Sustainability in Developing Asia

by Ferrarini; Benno

• ISBN13: 9780415522212
• ISBN10: 0415522218
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Addressing the Global Financial Crisis required fiscal intervention on a substantial scale by governments around the world. The consequent build up of public debt, in particular its sustainability, have moved centre stage in the policy debate. If the Asia Pacific region is to continue to serve as an engine for global growth its public debt must be sustainable. The book addresses this issue for Asia Pacific as a whole as well as for three of the most dynamic economies in the region: China, India and Vietnam. The book begins with a discussion of the reasons why there is increased attention on debt related issues and outlines the contents of the volume. It includes fiscal indicators for Developing Member Countries (DMCs) as categorized by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The book also assesses debt sustainability for these countries with the most updated data sources. It also looks at the existing literature on debt sustainability, outlining the main issues related to debt sustainability and discussing the key implications for the application of debt sustainability analysis in developing Asia. It highlights the importance of doing individual country studies in view of wide variations in definitions of public expenditure, revenues, contingent liabilities, government structures (e.g. federal), and the like as well as in the impact of debt on interest rates. The book provides a comprehensive analytical and empirical update of the sustainability public debt in developing Asia. It breaks new ground in that various characteristics of the sustainability that have not yet been explored in the literature which, nevertheless, are crucial to understanding it. The book should prove to be useful to graduate students, researchers as well as policymakers.