"Repo" is short for "sale and repurchase agreement", where one party agrees to sell bonds or other financial instruments to another party, with an agreement to repurchase equivalent securities in the future, under a formal legal agreement. It is widely used in financial markets as an alternative...

This Handbook discusses different possible approaches to the primary issuance of government debt, that is to say, the point at which the debt - normally in securitised, or tradable, form - is first sold by the government to the non-state sector. The main focus of the Handbook is on auctions of...

Derivatives, ranging from relatively simple forward contracts to complicated options products, are an increasingly important feature of financial markets worldwide. They are already being used in many emerging markets, and as the financial sector becomes deeper and more stable, their use is...

A number of governments state explicitly, in broad terms, their goals for debt management. For most, these could be summarised as: "Raising finance from the non-government sector in order to cover the government’s borrowing needs, while minimising the long-run cost of debt service and taking...

Monetary operations typically aim to achieve monetary stability; but, under this broad umbrella, the monetary authorities need to decide which specific targets to aim at, and which policy instruments should be used. For most countries the final long-term monetary target of the central bank is...

Monetary operations refer to the implementation of monetary policy – ensuring that a central bank’s policy decision has the intended impact on financial markets, and on the economy more generally. For operational purposes the day-to-day tactical target is usually to achieve a particular...