A. M. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that global public debt could reach 100% of world GDP by the end of this decade, surpassing even the levels recorded during the pandemic. This increase, especially in developing countries and emerging markets, limits the resources allocated to social programs, reduces the capacity to respond to crises and raises financing costs.
The organization noted that, in addition to issuing more debt, many countries are resorting to complex and non-transparent forms of financing, such as guaranteed contracts and public-private partnerships. These mechanisms can generate “hidden debt”, which is difficult to identify and is often only discovered in restructuring processes, damaging confidence and potentially triggering debt crises.
In view of this situation, the IMF stresses that debt transparency should be considered a public good. Clear and up-to-date legislation is essential to define what is meant by public debt, who can acquire it and under what conditions. However, its analysis in 85 countries revealed that in many cases laws are insufficient, poorly enforced or leave important debts such as those of public enterprises or subnational governments out of oversight.
The Fund also insists that authorities must be held accountable for their financial decisions, including effective audits with public results. To advance this issue, the IMF organized an international conference and has strengthened its technical and legal work with more than 200 support missions in the last two years.
Concrete recommendations include enacting and enforcing mandatory public debt disclosure laws, using legal reforms as a bridge to build national consensus, and ensuring that the institutions in charge have real capacity to enforce and monitor these rules.
The IMF emphasizes that achieving transparent public debt depends not only on good data, but also on sound legal frameworks, accountable institutions, and political will. Only then will countries be able to ensure sustainable finances and avoid future crises.
