Unfinished business in the international dialogue on debt

From November 2001 to April 2003, the International Monetary Fund grappled with a radical proposal, the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism, for handling the external debt of insolvent governments of developing and transition economies. That proposal was rejected, but new “collective action clauses” that address some of the difficulties in restructuring bond debt are being introduced. In addition, IMF is developing a pragmatic and eclectic approach to assessing debt sustainability that can be useful to governments and creditors. However, many of the problems in restructuring sovereign debt remain and this paper suggests both specific reforms and modalities for considering them.