Mark Aguiar: When Sovereign Debt Breaks its Promise

IMF Podcasts

For decades, governments have been tapping into global sovereign debt markets to smooth ups and downs in revenue with the hope that it would help spur investment. But what happens when government borrowing fails to deliver, and the citizens are left paying the bill? Mark Aguiar says emerging market and developing economies are especially vulnerable to interest rate spikes when debt levels are high. Aguiar is the Director of the International Economics Section at Princeton University, and his research suggests that sovereign borrowing to stabilize the economy may have the opposite effect.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/3yHY3T8

Read the article at IMF.org/fandd