This paper examines the causes, process, and outcome of Belize’s 2016–17 sovereign debt restructuring – its third episode in last 10 years. As was the case in the earlier two restructurings, in 2006-07 and in 2012-13, the 2016-17 debt restructuring was executed through collaborative...

This paper provides a set of stylised facts on the mechanisms through which banking and sovereign distress feed into each other, using a large sample of emerging economies over three decades. We first define “twin crises” as events where banking crises and sovereign defaults combine, and...

This paper examines the costs of recent sovereign defaults using synthetic control methods, a novel econometric technique based on comparative case studies. Evidence on the eects of debt crises is thus presented on a case-by-case basis, uncovering large variations in country-specic experiences....

This paper studies the impact of debt default on economic growth taking into account the depth of a debt restructuring. More specifically, creditors' losses (or haircuts) are used as proxies of the severity of the default episodes. Analyzing 89 defaults in 72 countries over the period 1979-2005,...

This study examines whether a debt-to-GDP threshold exists in the public debt and economic growth relationship for 20 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 1990 to 2016 using the threshold estimation technique. The empirical results reveal that there is a threshold effect in the...

The tendency to continuously procure debts not constructively directed at well thought-out courses remains quite absurd. With feverish grip of this national concern among Nigerians, key stakeholders seriously lament the huge debts incurred in the past which did not significantly translate to any...

The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a heavy toll on people’s lives and wiping out years of progress in development. This paper examines the impact of the coronavirus on Sub-Saharan Africa. It discusses how the deeply rooted structural weaknesses – high informality, a large youth population with...

This paper proposes a framework for assessing fiscal sustainability in heavily indebted countries dependent on exhaustible resources, with reference to Gabon. It finds that fiscal sustainability could be achieved by: (i) developing a fiscal rule for the non-oil primary fiscal balance compatible...

The study of the link between debt and growth has been full of debates, both in theory and empirics. However, there is a growing consensus that the relationship is sensitive to the level of debt. Our paper tries to address the question of non linearity in the long term relationship between...

This study examines whether a debt-to-GDP threshold exists in the public debt and economic growth relationship for 20 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 1990 to 2016 using the threshold estimation technique. The empirical results reveal that there is a threshold effect in the...