A New Database on General Government Debt

We present a new data set on credit to the general government sector for 26 advanced and 14 emerging market economies. The main benefit of these new BIS series for "public debt" is that they provide data with similar characteristics from across the globe, facilitating cross-country comparisons. Another distinctive feature is that the data set contains series expressed in both nominal and market value terms, allowing for a wide range of analyses. Lastly, the statistical concepts are identical to those underlying the BIS data set on credit to the private non-financial sector, published since 2013. Taken together, the data sets can thus provide a useful picture of the aggregated indebtedness of all non-financial sectors.

JEL Classification: C82, E51

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Dembiermont, Christian and Scatigna, Michela and Szemere, Robert and Tissot, Bruno, A New Database on General Government Debt (September 13, 2015). BIS Quarterly Review September 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2661592