Public debt management before, during and after the crisis

Abstract

During the financial and economic crisis, the public debt ratio in the European Union increased significantly, and public debt management had to be carried out in a completely new and unfavorable environment. The authors of this paper explore the changes in public debt management during and after the crisis. They describe the way in which three members of the Union – the Netherlands, Ireland and Hungary – dealt with the challenge of government financing during the crisis. These three countries were chosen because they all had a comparatively welldeveloped public debt management system before the crisis, and also due to the fact that during the crisis those responsible for public debt management pursued a policy of active accommodation to current market circumstances. Therefore, these case studies can illustrate the capacity of public debt management to contribute to the prevention of a sovereign debt crisis. In the conclusion, the authors give an overview of public debt management in Croatia in the period of the crisis and compare it with public debt management in the three countries whose experiences are presented in the paper.