The COVID-19 pandemic has hit sub-Saharan African economies hard, exacerbating debt and debt servicing cost issues that a range of countries in the region - including Ghana and Nigeria - already faced. This report examines the fiscal context in sub-Saharan Africa and the issues and options for...

On March 28, 2011, the U.K. Government took a bold step. It adopted legislation that made permanent, a temporary Debt Relief Act that limits vulture funds from being able to make massive profits from the 40 most impoverished countries debt in British courts, following a major campaign...

Financial actors from developing countries are playing with other OECD financial giants as equals through their Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). SWFs could become major actors of development finance if they chose to allocate 10 per cent of their portfolio to emerging and developing economies over...

This paper investigates the major drivers of the public debt growth in 184 countries. Our analysis consists in a cross-country survey, which is conducted on the basis of the improved compilation of datasets on the central government debt for 2013. In order to differentiate between...

In an economy with a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), the government may draw on the fund to supplement other government revenues. If the fund is invested in risky assets, this introduces a new stochastic element into the government’s budget. We analyze the interaction between the draw from and...

Do sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) contribute to Africa's development? This paper assesses the objectives of SWFs (fiscal stabilization, productive investment, intergenerational saving) and discusses alternatives. We argue that fiscal stabilization funds are often necessary, but entail...