Workshop on Public Debt and Fiscal Adjustment in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia

Having been launched in virtual format in 2021, and also offered virtually in 2022, the one-week workshop on Public Debt Dynamics, Fiscal Adjustment, and Climate-Related Risks in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Mongolia (CCAM) took place for the first time as a face-to-face workshop this year from January 23 to 27 at the JVI. It was organized and delivered jointly by the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Mongolia Regional Capacity Development Center (CCAMTAC), the Joint Vienna Institute (JVI), and the IMF’s Institute for Capacity Development (ICD). The workshop was held in English with simultaneous translation into Russian; the workshop documentation was made available to the participants in both English and Russian.

The overall objective of this workshop for officials from the CCAM region was to analyze how public debt in their countries was expected to change over time, to assess fiscal adjustment paths to achieve a user-defined public debt target, and to consider the potential impact of climate-related shocks, inflation, and other customized shocks.

The workshop focused on the analysis of public debt developments and scenarios using the Excel-based Public Debt Dynamics Tool (DDT), developed by the ICD. Moreover, it also introduced new extensions of the core DDT to project public gross financing needs and to analyze the macroeconomic effects of climate change (including natural disasters) and related mitigation and adaptation policies on public debt. In light of current global developments, special attention was also paid to the contribution of inflation to public debt dynamics. These innovations were highly appreciated by participants and will also be considered for other courses and workshops with a focus on public debt. 

Attendees included officials working on macro-fiscal policy or debt management in the finance and economy ministries and central banks of all nine CCAM countries. The 27 participants were highly motivated and prepared high-quality final presentations analyzing debt developments in their countries. The workshop was very well received, with very high overall satisfaction ratings by participants. They expressed their interest in applying the knowledge and tools acquired during the workshop in their work. Counselors mentioned the possibility of complementary support from the IMF at the country level in case of need and interest. 

Markus Eller, Senior Economist, JVI

Aliya Kistaubayeva, Economic Analyst, CCAMTAC

Leonardo Martinez, Senior Economist, IMF ICD