Introduction section PDM Network: a webinar on the topic “Sustainability of Debt Management in the Post-Pandemic Era”

PDM Network: a webinar on the topic “Sustainability of Debt Management in the Post-Pandemic Era”

The Public Debt Management (PDM) Network, sponsored by the Italian Treasury, the OECD and the World Bank, launched the E-book “Sustainability of Debt Management in the Post-Pandemic Era” which collects the proceedings of the 2nd Public Debt Management Network Conference, held in Rome on May 26-27, 2022.

 

The second PDM conference took place in the contest of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and a rapidly worsening environmental and climate crisis: all these new challenges combine to exacerbate economic, financial and debt vulnerabilities. Against this backdrop, the volume contains contributions by selected authors and renowned speakers, exploring highly cited and timely topics central to the management of public debt with a focus on debt sustainability, including from an environmental perspective, its impact on economic growth, and its link with the development of capital markets. Moreover, it includes country case studies on the liquidity of the secondary government bond market, the development of local currency bond markets and the effects of the adoption of unconventional measures to cope with the pandemic.

 

The launch of the E-book was accompanied by a presentation by chapter author Samantha Cook (World Bank) on the paper “The Impacts of Disaster Risk on Sovereign Asset and Liability Management”, co-authored with Cigdem Aslan, and with a team comprised of Phillip Anderson, David Bevan, Mellany Pintado, and Jelena Kosticwhich. The paper introduces a theoretical framework to understand the potential impact of natural disasters on countries’ economy and public finances. To evaluate this impact, existing alternatives for modelling and stress testing and the challenges that arise from lack of data were discussed. The theoretical framework is applied in three case studies: Peru, Serbia and New Zealand. The presentation was followed by a roundtable discussion among the author and high representatives from the Italian Treasury, the OECD and the World Bank (Promoting Institutions of the PDM Network): Davide Iacovoni, Director General  - Public Debt, Italian Treasury Department; Fatos Koc, Head of Public Debt Management Unit, OECD, and Lars Jessen, Lead Debt Specialist, Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment, the World Bank.

 

The webinar was also the occasion for the Head of the PDM Network Secretariat, Elisabetta Cervone, to present the new PDM Webinar Series initiative, focusing on current and topical issues on public debt management policies and bond market development. The public was invited to fill-in a short survey about the organization of the PDM Webinar Series.

 

 Fatos Koc (OECD) made the concluding remarks.

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