Ian Ball on the Real Value of Hidden Assets

IMF Podcasts

Governments with strong balance sheets are known to recover from shocks more quickly. Yet many of them don't have balance sheets, or even know what assets and liabilities they have. The IMF estimates these often-overlooked global public assets at twice the value of global GDP. Ian Ball is a professor at Victoria University in Wellington and behind the New Zealand government’s net worth approach to determining its fiscal position. Ball published an article in Finance and Development about the benefits of digging up all government assets, hidden or otherwise. In this podcast, he sits down with journalist Rhoda Metcalfe to discuss the advantages of this basic accounting exercise that dates back to the time of William the Conqueror.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3CViKsI

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd